Tools for Discovery

CNSI addresses the grand challenges of our generation by developing enabling research tools including: advanced detectors and imaging systems, physical platforms for manipulating matter over multiple length scales, and design strategies for the preparation of functional nanomaterials.

Nanoscience and related technologies are rapidly changing traditional perspectives by enabling new views of the atomic and molecular worlds.  The last decade provides a litany of examples demonstrating how new tools and methods have transformed the fields of science, engineering, and medicine. Interdisciplinary at its core, research at CNSI addresses the grand challenges of our generation by developing enabling research tools including: advanced detectors and imaging systems, physical platforms for manipulating matter over multiple length scales, and design strategies for the preparation of functional nanomaterials.

Advanced Imaging Technologies

The capacity to visualize matter at the limits of resolution in space and time is indispensable to both basic discovery and the development of nano-enabled materials, systems and devices. Researchers at CNSI strive to push the limits of leading-edge methods in fields ranging from ultra-sensitive detectors and high-performance microscopes to low-cost imaging platforms. Our interdisciplinary teams approach this task with a mindset that can be summarized as “If we can’t buy it, we build it”.

AFFILIATED FACULTY:     Katsushi Arisaka     Laurent Bentolila     Louis Bouchard     James Gimzewski     Bahram Jalali     Aydogan Ozcan     B. Chris Regan     Adam Stieg     Shimon Weiss     R. Michael van Dam     Hong Zhou

Nano/microfluidic Platforms

An ability to physically manipulate nano- and micro-scale systems enables unique approaches to address traditional technological  barriers. From applying quantitative mechanical forces to using inertial flows in confined spaces, CNSI scientists are working to develop platforms with applicability to areas as wide-ranging as fundamental materials science and clinical diagnostics. Intensive efforts to develop multifunctional nano and microfluidic devices, like those led by Dino Di Carlo, offer a means to detect, separate, concentrate and characterize rare cells from large volumes of bodily fluids for high-throughput diagnostics.
AFFILIATED FACULTY:     Dino Di Carlo     CJ Kim     Aydogan Ozcan     Jacob Schmidt     Hsian-Rong Tseng     Gerard Wong

Functional Nanomaterials

The rational design of functional nanomaterials underlies our capacity to harness the unique properties that emerge at nanoscale dimensions. Researchers at CNSI strive to develop design principles and robust synthetic approaches for preparing new chemical systems with targeted utility as well as material platforms for broad application including: polymeric and biomimetic systems, inorganic carbons, metal oxides, chalcogenides and perovskites as well as hybrids and composite materials.

AFFILIATED FACULTY:     Russel Caflisch     Jane Chang     Xiangfeng Duan     Bruce Dunn     Yu Huang     Heather Maynard     Ni Ni     Vidvuds Ozolins     Qibing Pei     Sarah Tolbert     Paul Weiss     Ben Wu     Yang Yang

OTHER AFFILIATED FACULTY

Sotiris Masmanidis     Ya-Hong Xie

Research News – Tools for Discovery