240. Very happy to share that Dr. Fan received the Welch Foundation Best Faculty Poster Award, the First-Place Prize! She shares this honor with Hyungmok Joh, her outstanding student, and all collaborators. (October 2024)
239. 🚀 Exciting News! 🚀(September 2024)
Materials Nova, Dr. Fan’s first high-tech venture, has been awarded its first grant, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)! 🎉This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without the support from NIH program managers, dedicated reviewers, and the Discovery to Impact Office at UT Austin. We are committed to transforming our research into practical solutions that will benefit both people and society. 🌎💡Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to work toward meaningful impact!
238. Happy to share that we received the competitive Texas Proof-of-Concept Award from the Discovery to Impact Office at UT Austin (August 2024)!
237. Dr. Fan delivered a plenary talk and a keynote speech at two prestigious international conferences this summer. At the MARSS conference in Delft, Netherlands, she presented on “Multiscale Robotic Materials and Platforms for Biomedical and Environmental Applications,” showcasing innovations from nanoscale manipulation to portable water disinfection. She was a keynote speaker at the Nanomotors International Conference in Barcelona, Spain, celebrating its 20th anniversary. This conference gathered globally leading researchers in nanomotors to explore advancements and applications in biomedical sciences and the collective behavior of self-propelled nanomotors (July 2024).
236. Dr. Fan’s Ph.D. supervisor Prof. Chia-Ling Chien‘s interview – Pioneer in magnetic nanostructures, superconductivity, and spintronics — published online by IEEE Magnetic Society. A conversation on Dr. Chien’s family background, academic preparation, career trajectory, research interests, mentorship; hear his reflections on how to “try your best” and “do it right”, in terms of conducting research and nurturing the younger generation of scientists; Dr. Chien made significant contributions to magnetism and magnetic materials, he is also a professional-level pianist and composer — Rachmaninov’s piano concerto No. 2 is a piece he performed to express his gratitude to those around, also included in this interview (June 2024).
235. The Materials Innovation Lab will reach out to K12 students with demonstrations of intelligent materials and devices at STEM Girl Day at UT Austin (February 2024).
234. Our research on the 3D-printed water disinfection cup has been highlighted as a Top Research Story of 2023 at UT-Austin. We are very delighted by this work. The robustness of the device has been validated independently by two Ph.D. students employing different commercial testing kits. Practically, our device has successfully disinfected fresh water sourced from Waller Creek, a heavily pathogen-polluted water body, to the potable level. Special thanks go to our patent office for the help in retaining the patent rights. (December 2023)
233. Warmest congratulations go to Parthiv Shah, Justin Wei, Carter Peeler, Ana Millan, and Vikash Vijayakumar for winning the Best presentation award, First Place, $500 in prize, from the First-Year Introduction to Research Experience (FIRE) Program, UT-Austin. For the third consecutive year, FIRE students mentored by Dr. Fan have won the competitive presentation award for their semester-long research projects! (2023)
232. Dr. Fan will be inducted as a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) in March 2024. She is grateful for her nominator and reviewers. “AIMBE Fellows represent the top 2% of medical and biological engineers. They include the most accomplished medical and biological engineers in academia, industry, education, clinical practice, and government.”
231. Dr. Fan will serve as a Program Chair of the International Conference on Manipulation, Automation, and Robotics at Small Scales (MARSS), Delft, Netherlands, in 2024. She is thankful for the trust of Prof. Sergej Fatikow, the MARSS Founding Chair and professor at The University of Oldenburg in Germany.
230. Congratulations to our outstanding students Zexi Liang and Hyungmok Joh! Their work entitled “Light-stimulated micromotor swarms in an electric field with accurate spatial, temporal, and mode control” has been published in Science Advances! We thank our editor and reviewers for their support!
Swarming behaviors, a hallmark of life, are ubiquitously found in nature. The constituting members of swarms range from molecular motors, bacteria, to bees and dolphins. Interestingly, swarms in nature exhibit high-level intelligence not found in individual members. It is of great interest to create the counterpart artificial swarms, which is important for understanding the rules of life and exploring emergent applications. In this work, we proposed and successfully validated an innovative concept and the associated working mechanism for rationally generating reconfigurable multi-modal micromotor swarms with unmatched spatial, temporal, and mode control.
229. Very happy that our recent invention has been published in Nature Nanotechnology — the 3D Electrokinetic Trap enables the use of nanoparticles as untethered robotic tools with unprecedented precision and versatility. Our work is also kindly reported by Nature Nanotechnology News and Views. We are grateful for our editor, reviewers, and collaborators’ support!
Technology & art are fused in this research — we use art to showcase our innovation’s technical capability & use this innovation to express our appreciation of beauty in art — a nanowire dances with the melody of Sicilienne (Gabriel FaurĂ©) and unveils a ballerina’s image with its trajectory. The demonstration draws inspiration from ‘Emerald,’ an excerpt from the ballet ‘Jewelry’; the video can be found here.
228. Given the ongoing climate change, we anticipate a rise in both the quantity and frequency of disastrous weather events. Among the states in the US, Texas stands out as one of the top three most affected by the impacts of these natural calamities. With this vision in mind, our group successfully developed an innovative, robust water treatment technology in the form of a portable cup that directly purifies water from creeks, streams, lakes, and rivers, permitting individual safety and resilience in such events. Dr. Fan did a live interview with KVEU, a TV station in Austin.
227. Recently, we proposed and validated a new water treatment scheme based on live fishing bacteria using high-frequency AC fields. The device prototype is all-weather, portable, and has one of the lowest energy consumption among various technologies. The employed material, dendritic porous graphite, is derived from our patent-awarded fabrication technique. We practically disinfected water from Waller Creek at UT-Austin. The paper has been published online by ACS Nano. Congratulations to Xianfu, Weigu, Zexi, and Yifei! (2023)
226. Congratulations to Hyungmok for receiving the Engineering Foundation Endowed Graduate Presidential Scholarship! (2023).
225. Congratulations to Huaizhi for receiving the Harry and Rubye Gaston Graduate Scholarship (2023).
224. Dr. Fan received the promotion to Full Professor. The university sets a rigorous standard for promotion to its highest rank. She is considered as having “exceeded these requirements” (thanks for the review). She also received many congratulations from her colleagues 🙂 (2023).
223. Our FIRE students won the Best Presentation Award, First Place, First-Year Introduction to Research Experience (FIRE) Program, Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin (2022).
222. Dr. Fan serves as an Associate Editor of Wiley’s infoScience, a sister journal of Wiley’s infoMat. We welcome high-quality research articles and reviews.
221. Dr. Fan received the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Mid-Career Advancement Award. The NSF MCA Award is “much like NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development Program known as CAREER. This award will support Dr. Fan in prototyping a novel on-chip biosensing scheme innovated by her lab towards its commercialization. Dr. Fan looks forward to entering a new career realm in translational research via partnership and business training. (2022)
220. Dr. Fan received the prestigious 2022 Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering Ilene Busch-Vishniac Lectureship (“This lecture features outstanding women in engineering and highlights the intellectual contributions of the lecturers while serving to inspire young women to pursue degrees and careers in engineering”)! Thank you, JHU! (2022)
219. Yun‘s collaboration with Dr. Jingang Li at Prof. Yuebing Zheng’s group resulted in another publication entitled “Tunable strong coupling in transition metal dichalcogenide nanowires” in Advanced Materials. Congratulation, Yun!!
218. Congratulations Huaizhi Li for receiving the Harry and Rubye Gaston Graduate Scholarship! (2022)
217. Congratulations Hyungmok Joh for receiving the Cullen M. Crain Endowed Scholarship in Engineering! (2022)
216. Congratulations to Yun Huang for her new paper “2D-Material-Integrated Micromachines: Competing Propulsion Strategy and Enhanced Bacterial Disinfection”, accepted by Advanced Materials. Yun successfully leveraged both the unique chemical and physical properties of 2D materials, MoS2, for the light-induced propulsion and bacterial disinfection with micromachines. In addition, MoS2 with Van-der-Waals-terminated surfaces is robust and compatible for applications in suspension. Its application addresses a daunting challenge faced by most traditional semiconductors, such as Si, which easily oxidizes in water. TMD materials have great potential for micromachines. (2022).
215. Huaizhi Li received the Materials Research Society Spring Meeting, Symposium SF13 Best Presentation for Novel Materials or Fabrication, and $500 for his travel support (2022).
214. Luke Abrahams, Conny Yijia Cai, Nolan Cummins, and Amelie Nguyen received the Best Presentation Award, Second Place, $300 cash prize, First-Year Introduction to Research Experience (FIRE) Program, Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin (2021).
213. Zexi Liang received The prestigious Ben Streetman Award in 2021 with a $500 cash prize, congratulations!
212. Our lab has been selected for the UT Austin/MD Anderson Cancer Center Collaborative Pilot Project Grant! We thank our collaborator at MD Anderson Cancer Center (September 2021).
211. We welcome Jiazheng Bao and Bin Lian who joined our group for Ph.D. study (August 2021).
210. Congratulations, Zexi started his postdoc position at Cornell University! Best wishes for him! (August 2021)
209. Our theoretical work “Versatile Microparticle Propulsion System by Light-Guided Dielectrophoresis: Proposed Method and Theoretical Calculation” has been published by the Journal of Applied Physics. In this work, we proposed an original method of using light alone to control both the orientation and propulsion direction of a semiconductor microparticle in an electric field (July 2021).
208. Hyungmok’s review and perspective paper “Materials and Schemes of Multimodal Reconfigurable Micro/nanomachines and Robots: Review and Perspective” has been published by Advanced Materials. We are grateful for the reviewers’ helpful comments (August 2021)
207. Hyungmok Joh received the Harris L. Marcus Graduate Fellowship in Materials Science & Engineering for being the most outstanding Teaching Assistant (Spring 2021)
206. Dr. Fan is admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (March 2021)
205. Dr. Fan received the highly desired Faculty Research Assignment Award from the Cockrell School of Engineering of UT-Austin (December 2020)
204. Dr. Fan became an invited member of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society. (October 2020)
203. Our recent work on the acceleration of biomolecule detection by motorized microsensors led by Jianhe Guo and Zexi Liang has been accepted by ACS Nano. In this work, we have demonstrated a new approach to speed up the detection of trace amounts of biomarkers and elucidated the underlying working principle, which could find applications in early-stage disease diagnosis. This work has been featured by UT Cockrell School of Engineering, Science Daily, Phys.org, The Medical News, ScienMag, EurekAlert, and AzoSensors among numerous news agencies. (October 2020)
202. Dr. Fan received the highly desired Texas Health Catalyst Consulting Award UT-Austin. (September 2020)
201. Our work led by Yun Huang on the scalable fabrication of molybdenum disulfide nanostructures and its assembly has been accepted by Advanced Materials. This research reports a scalable and well reproducible approach for the fabrication of MoS2 nanoribbons and the manipulation and assembly of the nanoribbons into various configurations and across microelectrodes. The material exhibits a rapid electric response to light for optoelectronics and effectiveness in the removal of mercury for water purification. The work has been featured by UT Cockrell School of Engineering, NCYT, AzoMaterials, Nanowerk, EurekAlert, Azonano, ScienMag, and Phys.org among numerous news agencies. We thank our collaborators and congratulate every author! (August 2020)
200. Dr. Fan delivered invited lectures at Texas A&M and the University of Houston (March 2020).
199. Dr. Fan served as the Discussion Leader on Integrated Multi-Material Fabrication 3D/4D Printing at the Gordon Research Conference, Robotics. (January 2020)
198. Zexi and Daniel’s paper on light programmable nanomotors with tunable in-phase electric polarization has been published by Nature Communications. New progress in realizing reconfigurable miniaturized devices such as micro/nanorobots is reported. Congratulations Zexi Liang and Daniel Teal! (November 2019)
197. Our new review article entitled Three Dimensional Nanosuperstructures Made of Two-Dimensional Materials by Design: Synthesis, Properties, and Applications has been published by Nano Today. (November 2019)
196. Congratulations Weigu Li, Zexi Liang, and Yun Huang, for receiving the first-place poster award from the Materials Science and Engineering Program at UT-Austin. (March 2019)
195. Our article Visible light-gated reconfigurable rotary actuation of electric nanomotors received highlights from Nano Today and Materials Today. We are grateful for the comments of Prof. Thomas Mallouk at the University of Pennsylvania (February 2019)
194. Our undergraduate students William Deas, Hanson Huang, Kyser Lim, and Sonia Lopez from the FIRE Program received first place for their poster presentation “Water Purification Systems for Disaster Resiliency” and a $200 prize. Congratulations! Special thanks go to Yun Huang and Jacob A Hethcock who worked with them. (January 2019)
193. Our featured review article Artificial Micro/Nanomachines for Bioapplications: Biochemical Delivery and Diagnostic Sensing has been mentioned by Advanced Science News and is among the top 10 most accessed articles in February 2018 published by Advanced Functional Materials. (October 2018)
192. Our recent work on solar thermal water purification and treatment led by Weigu has been featured by The Daily Texan. We work on new materials and devices to address the issue of shortage of drinkable water, such as that we see in Austin due to contaminated water sources after flooding. (October 2018)
191. Our recent work on multimode reconfigurable manipulation of nanomotors in electric fields received worldwide attention. It has been featured by UT News, Forbes, ASEE First Bell, IEEE Spectrum, Science Daily, Physorg, EurekAlert, and Daily Texan among numerous news agencies. (October 2018)
190. Our manuscript on high-rate solar steaming and mercury removal with MoS2/C @ polyurethane composite sponges for water treatment has been accepted by Advanced Energy Materials. Congratulations, Weigu! (September 2018)
189. Our manuscript on reconfigurable robotization of electric nanomotors has been published by Science Advances. Congratulations, Zexi! (September 2018)
188. Zexi received the Harris L. Marcus Graduate Fellowship in Materials Science & Engineering for his outstanding teaching efforts. Congratulations! (August, 2018)
187. Our manuscript on the design, fabrication, and robotization of a superstructural Raman Nanosensor with integrated dual functions for ultrasensitive detection and tunable release of molecules has been accepted and selected to be featured on the front cover by Chemistry of Materials. Congratulations, Jing and Jianhe! (August 2018)
186. Congratulations, Jianhe, for receiving the National Science Foundation Student Travel Award to the ASME Conference and being selected as a finalist of the Graduate Student Presentation Award! (August 2018)
185. Our manuscript on flexible all-solid-state supercapacitors of high areal capacitance enabled by porous graphite foams for self-powered portable nanomotor systems has been accepted by Advanced Functional Materials. Congratulations Weigu and our talented undergraduate students Marshall Tekell, Chang Liu, and Jacob Hethcock! (April 2018)
184. Dr. Fan will give a keynote talk in the Micro/nano fluidics session of the upcoming 2018 ASME NanoEngineering for Medicine and Biology Congress (NEMB). Thanks for the invitation. (March 2018)
183. Dr. Fan just gave a department seminar in Trinity university. Thanks for the invitation. (March 2018)
182. Weigu received the prestigious University Graduate Continuing Fellowship for his impactive works. The award carries a stipend of $28,000 for 12 months and full tuition and insurance benefits. Congratulations!! (February 2018)
181. The work led by Jianhe “Electric-Field Guided Precision Manipulation of Catalytic Nanomotors for Cargo Delivery and Powering Nanoelectromechanical Device” has been accepted by ACS Nano. Congratulations, Jianhe! (January 2018)
180. Our invited Focus Review article “Artificial Micro/Nanomachines for Bio-applications: Biochemical Delivery and Diagnostic Sensing” is appearing on Advanced Functional Materials soon. Thanks for the invitation! (December 2017)
179. Congratulations Chao for the new position at Global Foundries! (December 2017)
178. Jacob Hethcock received the prestigious Undergraduate Research Fellowship from The Vice President Office for Research at UT-Austin, congratulations! (October 2017)
177. Dr. Fan’s co-invention on “Systems and methods for separating metallic and nonmetallic particles in a mixed-particle suspension” has been granted with a US patent. (September 2017)
176. Yun received the highly selective Harris L. Marcus Graduate Fellowship in Materials Science and Engineering. Congratulations! (August 2017)
175. We welcome new graduate student Zhujun! (August, 2017)
174. Our work led by Weigu on all-solid flexible supercapacitors for seamless interaction with strain sensors has been published by Advanced Functional Materials. This work is featured on the back inside cover. Congratulations! (August 2017)
173. Our electric tweezers technology has been granted with the second US patent. Congratulations! (August 2017)
172. Weigu received the Warren A. and Alice L. Meyer Endowed Scholarship in Engineering. Congratulations! (July 2017)
171. Dr. Fan received the Robert & Jane Mitchell Endowed Faculty Fellowship in Engineering. She is grateful for the nomination and award. (July 2017)
170. Dr. Fan will give an invited department seminar at Washington University in St. Louis. We are grateful for the invitation. (June 2017)
169. Dr. Fan will give an invited talk at the 2017 International Conference of Micro/Nanomachines (ICMNM). We are very thankful for the invitation. (June 2017)
168. We are grateful for new grant support received from the National Science Foundation. (June 2017)
167. Dr. Fan will give an invited talk at the SPIE Photonics West Conference. We thank the invitation very much. (June 2017)
166. Our Work on the Kirkendall Effect in Creating Three-Dimensional Metal Catalysts for Hierarchically Porous Ultrathin Graphite with Unique Properties has been published by Chemistry of Materials. (June 2017)
165. Jianhe received the Best Poster Award in the MRS meeting! Congratulations! (June 2017)
164. We successfully organized the symposium NM10 Micro/Nano Assembling, Manufacturing and Manipulation for Biomolecular and Cellular Applications at the Material Research Society (MRS) Spring meeting with Profs. Peer Fischer, Xiaodong Wang, and Tony Huang. We are grateful for the outstanding talks and attendance! (April 2017)
163. Our work on Ultrasensitive and Durable Graphite-polymer Flexible Strain Sensors for Musical Instrument Education has been featured on the front cover of Advanced Materials Technologies. Congratulations Weigu! (April 2017)
162. Xiaobin and Dr. Fan’s patent on the design and fabrication of plasmonic nanoscapsules for ultrasensitive and well reproducible biochemical detection has been granted by the USPTO. Congratulations Xiaobin! (April 2017)
161. Our recent work entited “Electrokinetic Manipulation Integrated Plasmonic–Photonic Hybrid Raman Nanosensors with Dually Enhanced Sensitivity” is published by ACS Sensors and featured on the front cover. Congratulations to Chao and Zheng and our collaborators! (March 2017)
160.Weigu received the Graduate Student Professional Development Award, congratulations! (March 2017)
159. We submitted a new patent application for a recent invention on 3-D porous graphite materials, which have essential applications in energy storage devices, flexible electronics, and thermo-management of microelectronics(March 2017)
158. Our new work on flexible strain sensors for musical instrument education has been accepted by Advanced Materials Technologies! (March, 2017)
157. Both Jianhe Guo and Weigu Li received the Research Poster Competition Award in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Congratulations! (March, 2017)
156. Dr. Fan will give an invited talk at the SPIE Optics and Photonics Conference. We thank the invitation very much. (February, 2017)
155. Xiaobin and Dr. Fan’s patent on bi-functional magnetic-plasmonic nanotubes will be granted by USPTO. Congratulations! (January, 2017)
154. Prof. Fan will give an invited talk at the Materials Research Society Meeting and a web-seminar at the University of California at Los Angeles. We thank the invitation. (September, 2016)
153. It has been the second year since Dr. Fan host undergraduate students of the Freshman Introduction to Research in Engineering program at UT-Austin. We are very happy to impact many first-year students by providing hand-on research experiences. (September, 2016)
152. We welcome new graduate students Yun Huang and Kwangwon Seong to join our group. (September, 2016)
151. Prof. Fan is officially promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. She thanks families, friends, colleagues at UT and outside of UT, and all her former mentors and teachers. (August, 2016)
150. We are grateful for the new grant support from the National Science Foundation. (August, 2016)
149. Prof. Fan will give invited talks at the ACS Southwest Regional Meeting and 231th ECS Meeting. We thank the invitations very much. (August, 2016)
148.Jianhe has received the Graduate Student Professional Development Award, congratulations! (July, 2016)
147. Jianhe has received the Graduate Student Assembly Travel Grant to attend and present on the ACS National meeting, congratulations! (July, 2016)
146. Dr. Fan will serve as the lead chair of the symposium Micro/nano Assembling, Manufacturing, and Manipulation for Biomolecular and Cellular Applications in the MRS Spring meeting in 2017. (April, 2016)
145. Jianhe, Kwanoh, and Xiaobin received the Excellent Award in the poster competition event, Department of Mechanical Engineering, UT-Austin (March 2016)
144. Dr. Fan will give an invited talk at the 7th International Conference on Metamaterials, Photonic Crystals and Plasmonics in Spain. Thanks for the invitation. (February 2016)
143. Dr. Fan will give two invited talks at the 37th Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium in Shanghai. We thank the invitations very much. (January, 2016)
142. National Academic of Engineering featured the Nanotechnology Series produced by NBC and the National Science Foundation. We contributed to one of the six videos.
141. Our work on robotic nanosensors has been featured in the six-part video series on Nanotechnology: Super Small Science by NBC and the National Science Foundation.
140. Welcome undergraduate student Sharon Samuel to join our lab! (January, 2016)
139. Dr. Fan will give an invited talk at the American Chemical Society National Meeting at Philadelphia, PA. We thank the invitation very much. (January, 2016)
138. Dr. Fan’s group will give an invited talk at the upcoming MD&M West conference in Anaheim, CA. Thanks for the invitation. (January, 2016)
137. Dr. Fan will give an invited talk at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. We appreciate the invitation very much. (January, 2016)
2015
136. Our patent for electric tweezers has been formally issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). (2015)
135. Dr. Fan will give an invited talk at the 2016 Bioanalytical Sensors Gordon Research Conference in 2016. Thanks for the invitation. (November, 2015)
134. Dr. Fan will give an invited talk at the International Symposium on Theranostic Nanomedicine 2016 at National Tsing Hua University in March, 2016. (November, 2015)
133. Welcome Ph.D. students Zexi, Jiawei, visiting scholars Guilan, Tao, Jing, and undergraduate students Ashley, Jeremie, Tristen, Jennifer, Keith, Olivia, Robert, and Jake to join our group. (October, 2015)
132. Our group will give an invited talk at IEEE Nanomed and chair a special invited session. (October, 2015)
131. We feel thankful and honored to be invited to contribute to the Nanotechnology Series on sensors to be produced by NBC Learn. (October, 2015)
130. We are humbled and honored that our nanomotor work was referred in our president’s inauguration speech. (October, 2015)
129. Our collaborative work is published by the leading journal Energy & Environment Science. Congratulations Longjun and Chao! (September, 2015)
128. Jianhe has received the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) International Student Research Fellowship! Congratulations Jianhe! (July, 2015)
127. Our work on improving the lifetime of rotary nanomotors has been published by Nanoscale. Our nanomotors can rotate for more than 80 hours over 1.1 million cycles. This is a record for rotary nanomotors of a similar dimension to the best of our knowledge. The experiments also suggest an ultimate lifetime of hundreds to a thousand hours for ~10 million cycles, demonstrating the practical potentials of our rotary nanomotors. Congratulations Jianhe, Kwanoh, and Wesker! (May, 2015)
126. Dr. Fan will give an invited talk at ChinaNano 2015 in Beijing, China. We are very thankful for the invitation! (May, 2015)
125. Congratulations Prof. Chia-Ling Chien for receiving the prestigious IUPAP Magnetism Award and NĂ©el Medal. Prof. Chien joins a distinguished group of prior recipients of the IUPAP Magnetism Award that includes spintronic materials pioneer Stuart Parkin, UC Berkeley Chancellor Emeritus Robert Birgeneau, and Nobel Laureates Albert Fert and Peter GrĂĽnberg. (April, 2015)
124. Our invited review entitled “Recent Progress on Man-Made Inorganic Nanomachines” has been accepted by Small. (April, 2015)
123. Kwanoh Kim successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation! Congratulations Dr. Kim!! We are so proud of you. (April, 2015)
122. Dr. Fan is invited to attend the Foresight Institute‘s workshop focusing on long-term prospects for revolutionary advances in medical applications. Thanks for the invitation! (March, 2015)
121. Dr. Fan will give invited talks at the ACS National meeting in Boston and ASME IMECE conference. We are very thankful for the invitation! (March, 2015)
120. Chao received the Continuing Burton Fellowship from the graduate school, UT-Austin. Congratulations! (March, 2015)
119. Chao received the Best Poster Award from the Materials Science and Engineering Program, UT-Austin. Congratulations! (March, 2015)
118. Dr. Fan serves on the editorial board of Nature Scientific Reports. Thanks for the invitation! (March, 2015)
117. Dr. Fan is invited to give a talk at the conference of 3D and Materials Research (CC3DMR), Busan, South Korea. (February, 2015)
116. Dr. Fan will give an invited talk at the 2015 Joint IEEE International Symposium in Singapore in May. (February, 2015)
115. Our work on nanomotors made the finalist of the 2015 SXSW Interactive Innovation Award. Congratulations! (January, 2015)
2014
114. Our paper entitled “Micromotors with Step-Motor Characteristics by Controlled Magnetic Interactions among Assembled Components” was accepted by ACS Nano. Congratulations Kwanoh, Jianhe, and Xiaobin! (December, 2014)
113. Great news! Our paper entitled “Tunable Release of Multiplex Biochemicals by Plasmonic-Active Rotary Nanomotors” was accepted by Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Congratulations Xiaobin and Kwanoh! (December, 2014)
112. Our research on nanomotors is selected to be featured on the front cover of the text book Edexcel A-level Physics book 2 batch 1 (November 2014)
111. It is our great honor that the NSF director Dr. France A. CĂłrdova and the vice president of UT-Austin Ms. Ellyn Perrone visited our lab. Dr. CĂłrdova personally operated our nanomotors. We are very grateful for the support from the National Science Foundation. (November, 2014)
110. Dr. Fan is very honored to be invited to attend the Arab-American Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine symposium sponsored by U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Research Council of Oman. Thanks for the invitation! (November, 2014)
109. Congratulations Kwanoh for obtaining the AFOSR Materials Research Society Meeting Travel Award, Graduate Student Professional Development Award and the Nano Portfolio Program Travel Award! (November, 2014)
108. Congratulations Jianhe for obtaining the Materials Research Society Graduate Student Chapter Travel Award and the Graduate Student Professional Development Award! (November, 2014)
107. Dr. Fan will give an invited talk for the 13th International Workshop on Stress-Induced Phenomena and Reliability in Microelectronics. Thanks for the invitation! (October, 2014)
106. UT selected our patent disclosure for an international patent filing. Thanks and congratulations Kwanoh and Jianhe! (September, 2014)
105. Dr. Fan is invited to give a departmental seminar at The Johns Hopkins University. Thanks for the invitation. (August, 2014)
104. Xiaobin successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation! (August 2014)
103. Our paper of “Three-Dimensional Multilevel Porous Thin Graphite Nanosuperstructures for Ni(OH)2-based Energy Storage Devices” is selected to be featured on the inside front cover of the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, congratulations, Jing, Xiaobin and Chao! (August, 2014)
103. Our paper of “Location Deterministic Biosensing from Quantum-Dot-Nanowire Assemblies” was accepted by Applied Physics Letters, congratulations, Chao and Kwanoh! (August, 2014)
102. Welcome Weigu Li to join our group for graduate study. (August, 2014)
101. Welcome Mingliang Liu, an undergraduate student from Zhejiang University to join our group as a visiting student. (July, 2014)
100. We are grateful for the new grant support from the National Science Foundation. (July, 2014)
99. Ms. Ellyn Perrone, the Associate Vice President for Research of The University of Texas at Austin visited our lab. (July, 2014)
98. BBC Focus selected our nanomotors as the #3 of “10 discoveries that will shape the future” in 2014 (July, 2014)
97. Jianhe received the Harris L. Marcus Graduate Fellowship in Materials Science & Engineering from the Cockrell School of Engineering. Congratulations! (July, 2014)
96. Dr. Fan just gave three invited lectures at Nanjing University, China. (July, 2014)
95. Our paper of “Three-Dimensional Multilevel Porous Thin Graphite Nanosuperstructures for Ni(OH)2-based Energy Storage Devices” was accepted by the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, congratulations, Jing, Xiaobin and Chao! (July, 2014)
94. Dr. Fan’s research is featured by the Texas Materials Institutes of the University of Texas at Austin and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of the Johns Hopkins University where she received her Ph.D. degree. (June, 2014)
93. We welcome Ki-pyo Hong to join our group to conduct research for his M.S. study. (June, 2014)
92. Dr. Fan is featured by Woman in Nanoscience a National Science Foundation sponsored blog. The blog highlights the achievements of woman scientists in nanoresearch in the U.S. (June, 2014)
91. We submitted a new patent disclosure to UT-Austin (June, 2014)
90. We welcome highschool student Bryte You (St. Mary’s Academy) and undergraduate student Cheng Zhao (University of Rochester) to join our group for summer research. (June, 2014)
89. Our recent work on nanomotors have received broad interest and been featured by UT Cockrell School of Engineering, NSF news, Keye TV, the HOOK among many news agencies. (June, 2014)
88. Dr. Fan just gave seminars at UC-Berkeley and Yale University. Thanks for the invitation! (May, 2014)
87. Xiaobin’s story was featured by the Texas Materials Institutes of the University of Texas at Austin. (May, 2014)
86. Congratulations, Xiaobin, for receiving the Best Presentation Award of the Nano Portfolio Program of UT-Austin! (May, 2014)
85. Congratulations, Xiaobin, for receiving the highly coveted MRS Graduate Student Silver Award!! (April, 2014)
84. Dr. Fan will give an invited seminar at Brown University. Thanks for the invitation! (April, 2014)
83. Dr. Fan will serve as the co-editor of a special issue of the ASME-Journal of Nanotechnology in Engineering and Medicine. We welcome submissions of both research and review articles. The Call for Paper can be found here. The submission deadline is Dec. 1, 2014. (April, 2014)
82. Congratulations, Wesker, for your successful dissertation defense! Now, we should call you Dr. Lei! (April, 2014)
81. Xiaobin’s story is featured by the Texas Materials Institutes of the University of Texas at Austin. (April, 2014)
80. Xiaobin received the prestigious 2013 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Students Abroad. Congratulations Xiaobin!! (March, 2014)
79. Our work on “Electric-driven rotation of Si nanowires and Si nanowire motors” is accepted by Advanced Functional Materials. Congratulations Xiaobin, Chao, and Kwanoh! (March, 2014)
78. Congratulations, Kwanoh, Xiaobin, and Jianhe for your paper accepted by Nature Communications! (March, 2014)
77. Congratulations, Xiaobin, for receiving the Best Poster Award in the second Texas Materials Institute competition! (March, 2014)
76. Congratulations, Kwanoh, for receiving the 2014 Research Poster Contest Award, Second Place of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (March 2014).
75. Dr. Fan is grateful for the grant support from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research in organizing the symposium of MRS meeting in 2014. (February, 2014)
74. Congratulations, Xiaobin, for receiving the highly selective Nano Portfolio Program Travel Award (February 2014).
73. We are very glad that Xiaobin is selected as the finalist for the MRS Graduate Student Award in 2014. He will give a presentation at the MRS spring meeting and receive a Gold or Silver award. Congratulations!!(February, 2014)
72. We welcome Andrew Chan to join our group for undergraduate research. (February, 2014)
71. Dr. Fan will give invited seminars at the University of California at Berkeley and Yale University. (January, 2014)
70. Dr. Fan will give an invited talk for the conference of EITA-New Media and Bio at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (January, 2014)
69. We welcome Adam Vanderpool to continue his undergraduate research in our lab. (January, 2014)
68. Dr. Fan filed a new patent disclosure with Jing and Xiaobin. (January, 2014)
2013
67. Dr. Fan gave an invited seminar at the Department of Physics of the University of Arizona. (November, 2013)
66. Congratulations, Chao, for receiving the Graduate Student Professional Development Award. (November, 2013)
65. Congratulations, Xiaobin, for winning the Best Poster Award in the first Texas Materials Institute competition! (October, 2013)
64. Congratulations, Kwanoh, for receiving the Nano Portfolio Program Travel Award! (October, 2013)
63. Congratulations, Kwanoh, for receiving the Graduate Student Professional Development Award. (October, 2013)
62. Dr. Fan gave an invited talk at the International Conference and Exhibition on Materials Science and Engineering. (October, 2013)
61. We are thankful for the Research Grant awarded from the Office of the Vice President for Research. (October, 2013)
60. Dr. Fan will serve as the leading chair of the symposium Micro/Nano Engineering and Devices for Molecular and Cellular Manipulation, Stimulation, and Analysis of the MRS fall meeting in 2014. (October, 2013)
59. Dr. Fan received supplementary support from the National Science Foundation. We are grateful for NSF. (October, 2013)
58. Dr. Fan together with her great collaborators Drs. Wang and Chakravarty received a highly competitive National Institutes of Health grant to develop innovative biosensing and sensor manufacuturing technologies. We are grateful for the support. (September, 2013)
57. Our paper “Near-Field Enhanced Magnetic Plasmonic Bifunctional Nanotubes for Single Cell Bioanalysis” published on Advanced Functional Materials is selected to be featured on the front cover of the forthcoming issue. Congratulations, Xiaobin! (July, 2013)
56. Dr. Fan will give an invited talk at the Department of Physics of the University of Arizona. (June, 2013)
55. Dr. Fan filed two new US patents. More are coming…Innovation spirits are what we pursue. (June, 2013)
54. Chao’s paper “One-step Waferscale Synthesis of 3-D ZnO Nanosuperstructures by Designed Catalysts for Substantial Improvement of Solar Water Oxidation Efficiency” has been accepted by Journal of Materials Chemistry A and featured on the front cover! Congratulations, Chao! (May, 2013)
53. Xiaobin’s paper “Near-Field Enhanced Magnetic Plasmonic Bifunctional Nanotubes for Single Cell Bioanalysis” published on Advanced Functional Materials has been highlighted in Hot topics by Wiley-VCH . Congratulations! (May, 2013)
52. Dr. Fan is among 60 young engineers from US and Europe who are invited to attend the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) 2013 EU-US Frontier of Engineering Symposium in France. The conference aims to bring together outstanding, early-career American and European engineers under the age of 45 from industry, universities, and other research institutions to introduce their areas of engineering research and technical work. (May, 2013)
51. A short-term technical staff position is available! Interested candidates please find the detailed job description in the page below. (May, 2013)
50. Baby Mary-Kate was born! (May, 2013)
49. Congratulations, Kwanoh, for sucessfully passing the Ph.D. prilim exam. (April, 2013)
48. Congratulations, Xiaobin, for receiving the Graduate Student Professional Development Award! (April, 2013)
47. Congratulations, Xiaobin, for sucessfully passing the Ph.D. prilim exam. (April, 2013)
46. Recognizing our research achievements, Welch Foundation awarded us a new research grant for the next three years. (April, 2013)
45. Kwanoh’s paper “Innovative Mechanism for Precision Assembling and Actuation of Arrays of Nanowire Oscillators” has been accepted by ACS Nano and received an array of top 5% ratings by both of the reviewers. Congratulations! (March, 2013)
44. Kwanoh won the Chair’s Honorable Mention Award in the poster competition of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Congratulations! (March, 2013)
43. Nanotechnology has attracted intensive interest in the research community; however, most general citizens hold a muddled understanding of “nano” and are unaware of its applications. To improve the public’s understanding of nanoscience, We outreached the general public by demonstrating Little Things Matter in the UT-Explore event for K-12 students, their parents and teachers. (March, 2013)
42. Dr. Fan will give an invited talk at the Conference of Energy, Materials and Nanotechnology. (February, 2013)
41. Xiaobin’s paper of “Near-Field Enhanced Magnetic Plasmonic Bifunctional Nanotubes for Single Cell Bioanalysis” has been accepted by Advanced Functional Materials. Congratulations! (February, 2013)
40. Virgilio Martinez was awarded the Undergraduate Research Fellowship from the Office of the Vice President for Research. Congratulations! (February, 2013)
39. Dr. Fan is honored as a Recognized Mentor by Siemens Foundation . (January, 2013)
38. Chao’s research on “innovative mechanism for ratational one-step synthesis of 3-D nanosuperstructures for substantial improvement of solar water oxidation” has been selected to compete for the Texas Energy Research Challenge Award. (January, 2013)
37. We warmly welcome Wesker Lei to join our group for Ph.D. study. (January, 2013)
2012
36. Our group gave three well received presentations/posters at the MRS meeting in Boston, MA. (November, 2012)
35. Esther and Anna, our highschool intern students mentored by Dr. Fan and her student Xiaobin Xu, are selected as the regional (Texas) finalists of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology for their summer research in single cell analysis with nanomotors in 2012. The Siemens Award is considered as the nation’s most coveted teen science prize. Out of 1,504 projects submitted to the Siemens Competition, Esther and Anna are two among 11 finalists in Texas. They each has received a $1000 scholarship and will attend the next competition hold at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Congratulations, Esther and Anna! We are proud of you. (October, 2012)
34. Dr. Fan will give an invited talk at the University of Michigan. (October, 2012)
33. Dr. Fan will give an invited talk at Rutgers University. (October, 2012)
32. Dr. Fan gave an invited talk at the Air Force Research Lab. (October, 2012)
31. Congratulations Kwanoh for receiving the highly competitive Nationals Science Foundation student travel award for Symposium at the ASME 2012 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (ASME-IMECE)! Only 40 awardees are selected from 342 applicants. You deserve! (October, 2012)
30. Our research of “Ordered Arrays of Raman Nanosensors for Ultrasensitive and Location Predictable Biochemical Detection” was ranked the top 40 most accessed papers on Advanced Materials for August 16 and highlighted on the back cover by Advanced Materials. (September, 2012)
29. Xiaobin’s paper of “One-Step Hydrothermal Synthesis of Comb-Like ZnO Nanostructures” has been accepted by Crystal Growth and Design, an ACS journal with an impact factor of 4.72. Congratulations, Xiaobin. (2012)
28. Congratulations, Keshav Poddar! We hope for the best of your new endevor in the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston Medical School. (2012)
27. Great news! Dr. Fan has won the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award. The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program offers the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. (2012)
26. Welcome Jianhe and Jing to join our group in the fall. (2012)
25. Great news! Our paper of “Ordered Arrays of Raman Nanosensors for Ultrasensitive and Location Predictable Biochemical Detection” has been accepted by Advanced Materials. (July, 2012)
24. The Fan’s group will give three presentations at the conference of Nanotechnology for Defense Purpose in August. (May 2012)
23. The paper of “Guided-Mode-Resonance-Coupled Plasmonic-Active SiO2 Nanotubes for Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy” published by APL has been selected for the Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science & Technology . (May 2012)
22. Our paper of “Guided-Mode-Resonance-Coupled Plasmonic-Active SiO2 Nanotubes for Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy” has been accepted by Applied Physics Letters. (April, 2012)
21. Great news! Our paper of “Electronic Properties of Nanoentities Revealed by Electrically Driven Rotation” has been accepted by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). (April, 2012)
2011
20. Dr. Fan will give an invited talk at the Workshops of EITC-Bio 2012, to be hold at Princeton University, New Jersey. The theme of the EITC-Bio 2012 is “Recent Advances in Biomedical Research”. (December, 2011)
19. Xiaobin has given three well-received oral presentations at MRS Fall meeting,Boston, MA. (December, 2011)
18. Dr. Fan will give an invited talk at the SME NanoManufacturing Conference to be hold in March in Boston, MA. (October, 2011)
17. We welcome Chao Liu to join our group for graduate study (September, 2011).
16. Our review paper “Electric Tweezers” has been accepted by Nano Today. (May 2011)
15. Dr. Fan served as a session chair for Materials Research Society (MRS) meeting. Thanks for the invitation of the symposium organizer Dr. Fan. (April 2011)
14. Dr. Fan gave an invited talk in the workshop for the highschool students in Austin TX area. We are working hard to make animpact to K-12 education. (April 2011)
13. We are grateful for the invitation from Army Research Office for the Phase II proposal. The work is in collabrication with Omega Optics Inc. (March, 2011)
12. Good job, Xiaobin and Kwanoh! Both of you earned high GPAs in your first-semester graduate study. (January, 2011)
11. Dr. Fan promotes under-represented female and minority students. Her lab is one of the hosting labs for students from Woman in Engineering Program at UT-Austin. Thanks Xiaobin for your training of undergraduate students. (January, 2011)
2010
10. Dr.Fan’s research on drug delivery using nanowires as vehicles is reported by National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), a devision of NIH and National Science Foundation (NSF). The research was accomplished when she was taking postodoctoral training at JHU. (October, 2010)
9. We are grateful for the Research Grant from the Office of the Vice President at UT-Austin. (October, 2010)
8. Our successful collabration with Omega Optics Inc. secured two research grants, one from Army and the other from NIH. (September, 2010)
7. We are thankful for the grant support from Welch Foundation. (June, 2010)
6. “Sub-cellular resolution delivery of a cytokine through precisely manipulated nanowires”, is highlighted by Nature Nanotechnology News and Views: “Nanobiotechnology: Nanowires have cells in their sights” on June 13, 2010.
5. “Sub-cellular resolution delivery of a cytokine through precisely manipulated nanowires” is publised online by Nature Nanotechnolgy on June 13, 2010.
4. Welcome Kwanoh Kim and Xiaobin Xu to join our group for graduate study.
3. Dr. Fan concluded the first semester teaching. (May, 2010)
2. Dr. Fan presented her research at Physics Department of UT Austin. Thanks for the invitation of Dr. Li. (April, 2010)
1. Dr. Fan presented her research at the Microelectronics Center of UT Austin. Thanks for the invitation of Dr. Chen (March, 2010).
