Research Advisors
Dr. C.J. Martoff - Department of Physics
Imaging neutron detector development for homeland security applications. This is hands-on lab work to build unique, highly sensitive detectors which can be used to protect our country against smuggling of Special Nuclear Materials. Pure science applications of these detectors are also at the cutting edge of Astroparticle Physics, see references at:
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Dr. Chyanlong Lin - Department of Physics
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Dr. Daniel Strongin - Department of Chemistry
Environmental research:
Understanding how mineral surfaces influence chemistry in the environment. These can be bulk or nano materials.
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Dr. Spiridoula Matsika - Department of Chemistry
Research in the area of theoretical physical chemistry. More information on the area of research can be found at the website. Students can be chemistry or physics majors (or even math majors if they have taken general chemistry). Interested students should contact directly by email before May 5.
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Dr. Eric Borguet - Department of Chemistry
Chemical Microscopy using Molecular Beacons:
The focus of the project would be to understand how fluorescent molecules, that we might call "beacons", covalently bind to functional groups on surfaces, how binding affects the fluorescence and how the fact that this occurs on a surface changes the nature/efficiency of binding and fluorescence. While we know quite bit about chemical binding/fluorescence in bulk liquids, far less is know about these processes on surfaces. However, if we want to use molecular "beacons" to detect surface functional groups for bio-analysis, etc then this information becomes critical.
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Dr. Susan Jansen-Varnum - Department of Chemistry
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Dr. Laura Toran - Department of Geology
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES: Several small projects are available to help with storm water monitoring in local watersheds. These involve collecting samples, taking field measurements, and working up the data in the laboratory.
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Dr. Ralph Hillman - Department of Biology
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Dr. Jacqueline Tanaka - Department of Biology
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Cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) ion channels convert photochemical energy into electrical signals in the rods and cones of the retina. Some inherited forms of color blindness and other retinal dystrophies are due to mutations in the gene encoding the CNG channels. My lab characterizes the pathophysiology of the mutated channels examining the function, expression and trafficking of fluorescent-labeled proteins. These molecular insights will lead to better therapeutic approaches in treating patients and a deeper understanding of ion channel biogenesis.
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Dr. Parsaoran Hutapea - Department of Mechanical Engineering
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Dr. Hutapea is the PI of the Composites Laboratory. His research focuses are in the areas of reliability of microelectronic and optoelectronic packaging, bioengineering, and lightweight hybrid structures. The laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art finite element and CAD software, an environmental chamber, data acquisition systems, various measurement sensors, mechanical test machines, and a 3-axis CNC router.
Dr. Slobodan Vucetic - Department of Computer & Information Science
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Dr. Vucetic's group includes projects in data analysis and knowledge discovery from scientific and engineering data. Examples include analysis of satellite data, analysis of genetic and proteomic data, analysis of images and video signals. Potential participants could come from two groups of people: (1) computer and information science undergrad’s with good programming background, and (2) science, mathematics, and engineering students with an elementary knowledge of programming.