Member Biographies
Robert W. Cohn, ERINC Director and Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Louisville. PhD in Electrical Engineering, Southern Methodist University (1988). In 1996 founded the ElectroOptics Research Institute and Nanotechnology Center. Prior to joining UofL in 1989, he was Member of the Technical Staff, Texas Instruments (1978-1989). Some of the research activities over his career include surface acoustic wave device development; application of spatial light modulators to information processing, diffraction pattern generation and laser trapping/optical tweezers; and development of novel methods for micro- and nanofabrication. He is a Fellow of Optica (formerly the Optical Society of America OSA). Home page: Cohn Homepage: ERINC
Stuart J. Williams, Associate Director ERINC and Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering. Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University (2009). His research interests include fluid dynamics, micro- and nanofluidics, particle image velocimetry (PIV), Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), Lab-on-a-Chip systems, and colloidal self-assembly. Williams Lab
Thomas A. Berfield, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering. Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2008). His research involves numerous areas of experimental mechanics, particularly for applications related to thin films, MEMS, smart materials, adhesion and fracture behavior of materials, and renewable energy systems. Some recently funded projects include topics such as buckling stability dynamics for low-frequency vibration energy harvesting and scalable micro-patterning methods using cracking and drying thin films. Berfield Lab
Bikram Bhatia, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering. Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2008). His research focuses on heat transfer, nanotechnology, advanced materials, and energy systems. Bhatia Lab
Aly A. Farag, Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Director, Computer Vision and Image Processing Laboratory (CVIP lab). Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University (1990). His research focus is model-based computer vision and image understanding with practical and biomedical applications. His contributions have been in active computer vision, image modeling, segmentation, registration, and object reconstruction. Farag Lab
Joel R. Fried, Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering. Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering from UMASS, Amherst (1976). His research interests are in membrane separation and transport, computational chemistry, molecular simulations, polymer blends and composites, biomimetic membranes, proton transfer in fuel cell membranes, ion and small molecule transport through membrane proteins. Fried Lab
Xiao-An (Sean) Fu, Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering. Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University (2001). His research interests include advanced semiconductor thin film growth and characterization, SiC MEMS and NEMS, SiC integrated circuits, gas sensors for harsh environments, nanostructured material synthesis and application. Fu Lab
Omid Ghasemi-Fare, Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Ph.D. in Geotechnical Engineering with a Ph.D. minor in Computational Science from Pennsylvania State University (2015). His research experiences are revolved around energy geotechnics, geothermal energy, unsaturated soil mechanics, heat and fluid flow in porous media, THM modeling, transportation geotechnics and geotechnical earthquake engineering. Ghasemi-Fare Lab
Kunal Kate, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering. Ph.D. in Materials Science, Oregon State University (2015). His research interests include developing biodegradable polymer composite scaffolds for tissue engineering and bone fabrications, and sustainable polymer-plant fiber composites for structural applications. In this work Dr. Kate is studying the material-structure-property relations and interrelationships between material composition and process conditions on FDM 3D printing. Additionally, Dr. Kate is working on developing materials and design structures out of polymer elastomers and graphite/grapheme-based composites for wear resistances and energy applications. This work builds from his experience in testing fabricated design structures for mechanical wear and strengths along with modeling material properties and testing design structures with FEA analysis. Kate Lab
Yongsheng Lian, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, University of Florida. His research interests include computational fluid dynamics, thermal-fluid dynamics, multiphase flow, and AI and machine learning. His recent studies are on multi-scale simulation of drop impact, supercooled large droplet for icing, nucleate pool boiling, multiphase packed bed reactors, and aerodynamic fluid and shock-bubble interactions. Lian Lab
Jinjun Liu, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry. Ph.D. from the Ohio State University (2007). His research interests include spectroscopic studies on gas-phase molecules and molecular complexes, and condensed-phase materials in both frequency domain (using high-resolution lasers) and time domain (using ultrafast laser systems). Liu Lab
Shamus McNamara, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Director, Micro/Nano Technology Center. Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI. His research interests include MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS), Nanotechnology, Sensors and Transducers, Miniature Actuators, Lithography, Gas Microfluidics, Lab-on-a-Chip, Microelectronics, and Thermoelectrics. McNamara Lab
Sergio B. Mendes, Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, joint appointment with Department of Chemistry and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Ph.D. in Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson (1997). His research interests include molecular films, surface phenomena, optical waveguides and fibers, optical spectroscopies of nanostructured materials, optical waves and nanoparticles, optical and laser instrumentation, integrated optic and fiber biosensors. Mendes Lab
Olfa Nasraoui, Professor, Department of Computer Engineering and Computer Science, Endowed Chair of e-commerce and Founding Director of the Knowledge Discovery & Web Mining Lab. Ph.D. in Computer Science and Computer Engineering, University of Missouri – Columbia (1999). Her research includes Data mining, machine learning, mining high dimensional, sparse, heterogeneous or unstructured data and evolving data streams; Web personalization and profiling, intelligent user modeling, intelligent information retrieval and recommender systems. Nasraoui Lab
Martin G. O’Toole, Associate Professor, Department of Bioengineering. Ph.D in Chemistry, University of Louisville (2008). His research focus is the development of stimulus-responsive biomaterials for applications in drug delivery, diagnosis, wound healing, and other therapeutic applications. O’Toole Lab
Patricia Soucy, Associate Professor, Department of Bioengineering. Ph.D in Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (2010). Her research focuses on using both synthetic and natural biomaterials as mimics of the natural extracellular matrix to direct cell function for tissue regeneration and for drug delivery applications. Soucy Lab
Jill Steinbach-Rankins, Associate Professor, Department of Bioengineering. Ph.D in Bioengineering, Arizona State University (2009). Her research focuses on creating drug and gene delivery vehicles that provide more efficacious prophylactics/treatments for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including acute and chronic (latent) infections. In addition to developing better vehicles that specifically target viruses and host cells, significant advancements can be made to rationally design delivery platforms targeted to the unique microenvironments where infection, latency, and reactivation occur. Steinbach-Rankins Lab
Gamini U. Sumanasekera, Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Associate Director, Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research, joint appointment with Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Ph.D from Indiana University (1995). His research interests include synthesis of various nanostructures, photonic and thermoelectric materials based on synthetic opals, chemical sensors based on single wall carbon nanotubes, Raman spectroscopy, and Li-ion batteries and supercapacitors. Gamini Lab
Mahendra K. Sunkara, Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, and Director, Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research. Ph.D from Case Western Reserve University (1993). His research focuses on the development of new processes based on chemical vapor deposition (CVD) for producing large single crystal quality wafers (Diamond and Gallium Nitride) and one-dimensional materials (nanowires and nanotubes) for a variety of inorganic materials. Sunkara Lab
Thomas R. Tretter, Professor of Science Education, Department of Middle and Secondary Education, Director of Gheens Science Hall & Rauch Planetarium, and Co-Director, Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Teacher Development. Ed.D., Curriculum and Instruction, from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2004). His Research & Scholarship Interests include conceptions of scale and scaling in science, organizing science instruction around unifying themes, incorporating nanoscience and nanotechnology into middle and high school science classrooms, and diagnostic assessments of science teacher knowledge.
Gerold A. Willing, Professor and Chair, Department of Chemical Engineering. Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Auburn University (2001). His research program currently focuses on the fundamental aspects of colloidal stabilization and the impact of nanomaterials on the bulk properties of soft material and fluid systems.
Richard J. Wittebort, Professor, Department of Chemistry. Ph. D. from Indiana University (1978). The research focuses on experimental studies of molecular dynamics in the solid state.
Ming Yu, Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy. Ph. D. in Condensed Matter Physics from Hokkaido Institute of Technology, Japan (1995). Her research activities focus on (1) methodology development of large scale quantum mechanics-based molecular dynamics simulations and (2) nanomaterial simulations in fundamental understanding, designing, functionalization, characterization of novel nanostructures including two-dimensional materials beyond graphene, and applications for energy storage, the next generation of all solid-state-batteries, nano-sensors, strain-induced bandgap engineering, and in-plane heterostructures, as well as van der Waals heterojunctions.
Francis P. Zamborini, Professor and Chair, Analytical Chemistry and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Chemistry. Ph.D in Chemistry from Texas A&M University (1998). His research interests include catalytic activity of Pd and PdAg MPCs, electrochemical deposition of Ag NRs/NWs, negative shift in potential for oxidation of Au and Ag nanoparticles vs bulk material, and optical properties of coupled nanostructures. Zamborini Lab
University of Kentucky
Joseph W. Brill, Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Kentucky. Ph.D. in Experimental Solid State Physics from Stanford University (1978). His current research is on novel thermal, elastic, and infrared probes of crystals with “low-dimensional” electronic properties, including microcalorimetry and electro-optical and electro-mechanical measurements of charge-density-wave materials. Condensed Matter Group
Beth S. Guiton, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Kentucky; joint appointment with Oak Ridge National Laboratory STEM group. Ph.D. from University of Pensylvania. Her current focus is to combine the synthesis and design of new nanostructured materials, with their characterization using advanced transmission electron microscopy techniques ranging from atomic resolution imaging, to more exotic techniques such as plasmon mapping on the nanometer length scale. Guiton Group
Laurence G. Hassebrook, Professor Emeritus, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Kentucky. Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University (1990). His research interests include 3-dimensional data acquistion, pattern recognition, signal and image Processing, and stochastic systems. Hassebrook Research Group
J. Todd Hastings, Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Kentucky. Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2003). His research focuses on nano-scale electronic and photonic devices and their associated fabrication technologies. Hastings Lab
J. Zach Hilt, Professor, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Kentucky. Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin, TX (2004). His research focuses on designing and developing novel biomaterials based on intelligent polymer networks for application as recognition and/or actuation elements ininnovative devices for biosensing, drug delivery, and other micro- and nanoscale applications, primarily of medical and biological significance. Publications
Daniel L. Lau, Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Kentucky. Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, University of Delaware (1999). His research interests include digital halftoning, watermarking, and color reproduction, automated surveillance and face recognition, and human-computer interaction and assistive technologies research for persons with disabilities.
Home Page: Dr. Lau’s Research and Teaching Site
Janet K. Lumpp, Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Kentucky. Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from the University of Iowa (1993). Her primary research interests are in materials, lasers and microelectronics. Her research projects center on developing micromachining techniques for hybrid microelectronics, prototype component fabrication, and diffractive optics. She is also interested in studying laser processing of electronic, optical and magnetic materials to determine laser-solid interaction mechanisms in deposition and removal processes.
Home Page: Dr. Lumpp Research and Teaching Site
Douglas Strachan, Associate Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Kentucky. Ph.D. in Physics from University of Maryland (2002). His research interests include novel nanoscale electronic and photonic materials and devices, soft matter and colloidal systems, phase transitions and vortices in superconductors. Strachan Group
Western Kentucky University
Vladimir Dobrokhotov, Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Director of Applied Physics Institute, Western Kentucky University. His research interests include experimental and theoretical condensed matter physics, synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials, and sensor applications of one-dimensional nanostructures.
Home Page: Applied Physics Institute