Event
Microsystems Seminar: Zhihong Nie, "Engineering Structured Functional Materials"
Thursday, October 1, 2015
4:00 p.m.
1146 AV Williams Building
Ian White
ianwhite@umd.edu
Microsystems Seminar
Engineering Structured Functional Materials with Applications from Micromotors to Cancer Theranostics
Zhihong Nie
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Maryland
Abstract
The high demand for functional materials will require new development of materials with structures on different length scales, such as nano-, meso-, or microscale. Advanced or new properties may arise by shaping the structure of materials or combining disparate materials into one and offer possible applications in diverse fields. In this talk, I will present our efforts to design structured materials by top-down (i.e., microfabrication) and bottom-up (i.e., self-assembly) approaches, and to explore the potential applications of these materials. First, I will introduce controlled self-assembly of inorganic nanoparticles into plasmonic or magneto-vesicles and the demonstration of the application of these hybrid vesicles for controlled drug delivery and self-propelled micromotors. Second, I will talk about the engineering of artificial kidney in a microfluidic device and the use of this flatform as in vivo-like model for studying kidney stone formation. Finally, I will present how we can program the shape transformation of 2D soft materials into 3D structures.
Biography
Zhihong Nie received his Ph.D. degree in Polymer Materials and Chemistry from University of Toronto in 2008. He then worked was a NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow in George M. Whitesides’ group at Harvard University (2008-2010). In 2011, he started his Assistant Professor position in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Maryland, College Park. He was the recipient of a number of awards including CMNS Outstanding Junior Faculty Award (2014), 3M Non-tenured Faculty Award (2014, 2015), ACS PRF Doctoral New Investigator Award (2013), NSF CAREER Award (2012) and K. C. Wong Research Scholarship (2011), etc. His research interests include molecular and nanoparticle self-assembly, biomedical imaging and delivery, programmable soft materials, and microfluidics.
