Nature Nanotechnology, a journal that showcases the best research in nanoscience and nanotechnology, recently published another paper by Vanderbilt University’s Justus C. Ndukaife, assistant professor of electrical engineering, on merging metasurfaces with microfluidics.
Ndukaife, who heads the Laboratory for Innovation in Optofluidics and Nanophotonics (LION) at Vanderbilt, said the practice highlighted in the journal provides a means to better control the flow of light and benefit functionalities like color displays, miniature lenses, and holograms that help highly sensitive lab-on-a-chip devices to detect diseases like cancer.
Ndukaife’s work on single-molecule trapping using opto-thermo-electrohydrodynamic tweezers was featured in an article that appeared in Nature Nanotechnology in 2020. Optical tweezers use a tightly focused laser beam to trap particles and have emerged as a powerful tool in biological research providing the means to non-invasively manipulate microscopic objects such as biological cells. This work led to a Chancellor’s Award for Research in 2021.
He also recently received a prestigious NSF CAREER Award for foundational research in cell-to-cell communication. Part of the five-year, $508,000 grant will support international education and outreach activities to young scholars in West Africa in collaboration with the University of Nigeria, as well as local outreach activities in Nashville.
Contact: Lucas Johnson, 615-343-0137
lucas.l.johnson@vanderbilt.edu