As part of our commitment to outreach, two students working with David Chenoweth in this IRG (Alexander Kasznal and Samuel Melton) are involved in Spark mentoring programs. Spark Students are paired with a mentor based on mutual interests. Students visit their mentor’s workplace once a week for 10-13 weeks.
A collaboration (Wells, Shenoy) in IRG 2 studied the mechanisms of mechanical plasticity in collagen networks resulting from contractile forces produced by cellular aggregates placed within them.
Starting in 2017, the LRSM and Singh Center for Nanotechnology hosted monthly field trips for Philadelphia middle and high school students.
Large-area growth of monolayer films of transition metal dichalcogenides is important in the rapidly advancing research field of topological materials, because scientists believe tungsten ditelluride has so-called “topological” electronic states.
Next-generation 'smart' nanoparticle systems should be precisely engineered in size, shape and composition to introduce multiple functionalities, unattainable from a single material.
Stable glasses produced by physical vapor deposition are important to understand. They exhibit optical birefringence, which traditionally implies that the constituent molecules are aligned.
Vesicle fusion and fission processes often occur in biological systems, usually with the aid of specialized proteins. Percec, Klein, Hammer, and Baumgart carried out comprehensive fusion/fission experiments based on three membrane ingredients: hydrogenated (RH), fluorinated (RF), and hybrid-hydrogenated/fluorinated (RHF) Janus dendrimers (Figure – Top Left).
Liquid crystals, fluids with aligned phases of rod-like constituent molecules, are used in everything from computer and television displays to mood rings. “Handedness” or chirality, is ubiquitous in complex biological systems and can be controlled and quantified in synthetic materials such as cholesteric liquid crystals.
Researchers explore approaches to increase the toughness of disordered materials that are otherwise prone to fail in a catastrophic, brittle fashion.
Students from Girard College and the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf participate in lab experiments, materials science lessons, and visits to various Penn facilities. The primary purpose of the program is to introduce URG students to STEM at an early age.
