Biochemical/Biomedical Topics

Postdoctoral Project: Nanomaterial Building Blocks for Functional Materials, Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute, University of California, Berkeley (Advisor: Professor A. Paul Alivisatos).

PhD Dissertation: Morphology of Carbon Nanotube Liquid Crystalline Solutions: Insights into Tactoids and Columnar Phase, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Rice University (Advisor: Professor Matteo Pasquali)

Research Interests:

Anisotropic particles such as carbon nanotubes are known to self-assemble into ordered phases at high concentrations due to entropic reasons. My PhD research in Professor Matteo Pasquali’s laboratory was focused on studying the phase behavior and morphology of carbon nanotube liquid crystalline solutions. I studied the formation of spindle-shaped nematic droplets (known as tactoids) coexisting with the isotropic phase and developed a method for measuring the line tension of lyotropic system of rod-like particles. Furthermore, I developed the necessary techniques to use SANS and SAXS to characterize higher order liquid crystalline phases formed in length-polydisperse solutions of carbon nanotubes in chlorosulfonic acid to study the lateral ordering of the particles in solution, which is essential for fluid-phase processing of macroscopic materials such as fibers. The alignment of carbon nanotubes within the fiber structure provides unprecedented mechanical and electrical properties in the macroscale. This enables us to use these fibers as the backbone material for fabricating functional fibers with sensing and actuating properties. As a postdoctoral researcher in Professor Paul Alivisatos’s laboratory, I focused on colloidal synthesis of nanoparticles with unique optoelectronic properties. At the individual particle level, these nanoscale materials can serve as sensitive sensors yet once integrated with other materials can further form into active devices of unconventional functionalities at the micro- and macro-scale. Leveraging these unique properties across a spectrum of length-scales leads to the development of emerging concepts in science and technology. Example applications can range from pico-newton biological sensors to smart fibers and fabric that offers new capabilities including sensing, energy generation and storage, light emission, localized data processing and communication. As an independent PI, I aim to study the colloidal synthesis of nanoparticles with sensing properties, active assembly of such nanoparticles into ordered phases, and ultimately fabricating macroscale functional materials using nanomaterial building blocks to bridge the fundamental research and applications for developing functional active materials.

Teaching Experience: During my Ph.D., I served two semesters as a teaching assistant (TA) for the transport phenomena I (CHBE 401) and chemical engineering lab (CHBE 433) courses. I was awarded the 2012 best teaching assistant award by the department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice. On my third year, I was selected to be the Dean’s teaching assistant which is a position offered to one graduate student in each class to work closely with a professor on a preferred course. I chose to work with one of our professors on the thermodynamics (CHBE 411) course. This position offered me the opportunity to interact more with the students, teaching as a guest lecturer in some classes, and designing homework and exam problems. In addition to my teaching experiences, I volunteered several times to teach one-day courses on STEM topics to young underrepresented girls in local science festivals in Houston, TX. Throughout my PhD, I also had the opportunity to mentor undergraduate (both through Rice and NSF-REU program) and high school students. I had the privilege to mentor an outstanding undergraduate student who will be joining as a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania this coming fall.

Teaching Interests: My teaching interests include the courses in the area of nanotechnology. In addition, I am also interested in teaching fluid dynamics, colloidal and interfacial phenomena, rheology, and thermodynamics.