Awards

The Ohio State University Institute for Materials Research (IMR) announces its first IMR Industry Challenge Grant awarded to Dr. Dennis Bong, Assistant Professor of Chemistry. 

Dr. Bong will receive $20,000 in cost share from IMR to supplement his project Synthesis of amphiphilic core-shell latex emulsions from soy proteins and delivery of corrosion inhibitors and biocides for coatings application, an externally sponsored research project funded by an industry partner. 

The IMR Industry Challenge Grants program was created to help strengthen new collaborations in materials-allied research between OSU researchers and private industry partners, which will lead to major external proposal development. These grants provide one-to-one matching funds up to $20,000 per year to fund graduate students or postdoctoral researchers working on these collaborative research projects.

 Industry Challenge Grants have a rolling deadline – applications are accepted at any time.  Visit the IMR website for more information and the full Request for Proposals.

2009 Interdisciplinary Materials Research Grants (IMRGs) Awarded by the OSU Institute for Materials Research (IMR)

IMR’s Research Enhancement Program provides different funding mechanisms to support novel research at The Ohio State University. Five new research projects were awarded by the IMR in June 2009, for a total investment of $225,000. Three IMRG research projects also received a second year of funding from IMR for an additional $130,000 in direct research support from IMR.

2009 IMRG Research Projects: New Research

Metamaterials with Smart Reconfiguration for Broadband RF Antennas
Lead: Marcelo Dapino, Mechanical Engineering; Co-Applicants: Suresh Babu, Industrial Systems Engineering; John Volakis, Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Economical Platforms for FET-based Protein Detection to Support Sensor Clinical Translation
Lead: Stephen C. Lee, Biomedical Engineering; Co-Applicant: Paul Berger, Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Use of Electrospun Biomaterials as Carriers of Bone Marrow Derived Stem/Progenitor Cells to Stimulate
Lead: Nicanor I. Moldovan, Internal Medicine; Co-Applicant: John J. Lannuti, Materials Science and Engineering.

Exploring Electrically Tunable Magnetism in Gd-doped Nitride Quantum Structures
Lead: Roberto C. Myers; Materials Science and Engineering & Electrical Computer Engineering; Co-Applicants: Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, Physics; Michael Mills, Materials Science and Engineering.

Synthesis of III-V Semiconductor Nanowire Heterostructures Using Metalorganic Chemical Vapor
Lead: Fengyuan Yang, Physics; Co-Applicants: Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, Physics; Roberto C. Myers, Materials Science and Engineering & Electrical and Computer Engineering

2009 IMRG Renewals

IMR also provided $130,000 in direct funding to support the second year of these successful IMRG research projects:

Experimental and Computational Study of ALD-grown Dielectrics on III-Nitrides
Lead: Siddharth Rajan, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering; Co-Applicant: Wolfgang Windl, Materials Science and Engineering

IMRG Research Award to Supplement Center for Emergent Materials Program
Lead: Katherine Flores, Materials Science and Engineering

Solving the “Contact Problem” of Molecular Electronics via Atomic Layer Deposition
Lead: Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, Physics; Co-Applicants: Jonathan Pelz, Physics; Malcolm Chisholm, Chemistry

A team of OSU researchers has won an NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award for the acquisition of a hybrid diamond/nitride synthesis cluster tool for studies of wide bandgap semiconductors.

The team of researchers spans two colleges and three departments including Physics (Prof. Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, CME, PI on the proposal*; Prof. Fengyuan Yang, CME; Prof. Harris Kagan, HEPX), Electrical and Computer Engineering (Prof. Siddharth Rajan**; Prof. Steven A. Ringel) and Materials Science and Engineering (Prof. Roberto Myers**). This cluster tool will allow for in situ sample transfer of substrates between diamond and nitride growth chambers, giving it the unique capability to grow high quality wide-bandgap semiconducting heterostructures. Research activity will span from high-energy physics to prototype electronic, magnetic and photonic devices, covering 15 orders of magnitude in energy (from ~1 meV to ~ 1,000 TeV), 13 orders of magnitude in time (~ 100 fs to ~ 1 ms), and 11 orders of magnitude in length (from ~ 1 nm to ~ 10 cm).

The MRI instrument aqcuisition award will allow an interdisciplinary research team to impact many areas.

As shown in the diagram above, this activity will also support local, national, and international collaborations including the Center for Emergent Materials (CEM, an NSF funded MRSEC at OSU), the RD42 collaboration (located at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland), the State-funded Wright Center for Photovoltaic Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC), and the Center for Affordable Nanoengineering of Polymeric Biomedical Devices (CMPND, an NSF funded NSEC at OSU). The multi-disciplinary project was supported by and developed in conjunction with The Ohio State University Institute for Materials Research (IMR).

* For more information please contact Prof. Johnson-Halperin at ejh@mps.ohio-state.edu.

** Profs. Rajan and Myers have complementary 80/20 appointments between ECE/MSE and MSE/ECE, respectively.

The OSU Institute for Materials Research (IMR) has released a Request for Proposals for our FY2010 Facility Grants competitions. 

IMR Facility Grants are awarded at $2,000 each for 12-month project periods, to assist OSU researchers with facility user access fees and related minor charges.  This fiscal year, IMR will again hold two rounds of Facility Grants competitions with deadlines of October 15, 2009 and March 15, 2010.

Since the inception of our Research Enhancement Program in 2007, IMR has awarded 54 Facility Grants totaling $124,916. 

This is just one of several ways in which IMR suports materials-allied research at The Ohio State University.  Learn more about IMR’s Research Enhancement Program at http://imr.osu.edu/programs/

Metamaterials with Smart Reconfiguration for Broadband RF Antennas

Lead: Marcelo Dapino, Mechanical Engineering; Co-Applicants:  Suresh Babu, Industrial Systems Engineering; John Volakis, Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Economical Platforms for FET-based Protein Detection to Support Sensor Clinical Translation

Lead: Stephen C. Lee, Biomedical Engineering; Co-Applicant: Paul Berger, Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Use of Electrospun Biomaterials as Carriers of Bone Marrow Derived Stem/Progenitor Cells to Stimulate Tissue Neovascularization

Lead: Nicanor I. Moldovan, Internal Medicine; Co-Applicant: John J. Lannuti, Materials Science and Engineering.

Exploring Electrically Tunable Magnetism in Gd-doped Nitride Quantum Structures

Lead: Roberto C. Myers; Materials Science and Engineering & Electrical Computer Engineering; Co-Applicants: Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, Physics; Michael Mills, Materials Science and Engineering.

Synthesis of III-V Semiconductor Nanowire Heterostructures Using Metalorganic Chemical Vapor

Lead: Fengyuan Yang, Materials Science and Engineering; Co-Applicants: Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, Physics; Roberto C. Myers, Materials Science and Engineering & Electrical and Computer Engineering. 

Eight new research projects were awarded by the IMR in May 2009, for a total investment of $16,000. The eight projects support 10 faculty researchers from four departments within the College of Engineering and the College of Biological, Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

• Characterization of TiO2 Nanowires Grown by Thermal Oxidation on Titanium Alloys Lead Investigator: Sheikh Akbar, Materials Science and Engineering; Co-Investigator: Suliman A. Dregia, Materials Science and Engineering
• Ultra-high spatial resolution FeCNT probes for quantitative Magnetic Force Microscopy analysis of magnetic systems Lead Investigator: P. Chris Hammel, Physics
• A proposal to fabricate low loss ridge-type Ta2O5 optical waveguides using atomic layer deposition and electron beam lithography of SU-8 Lead Investigator: Gregory Lafyatis, Physics
• High Resolution Electron Beam Lithography on Optically Transparent Substrates Lead Investigator: Wu Lu, Electrical and Computer
• Engineering Controlled Deposition of Nano-structured Metal Oxides on Micro Hotplate Devices for Gas Sensing Lead Investigator: Patricia Morris, Materials Science
• Molecular beam epitaxy growth of GaN/AlN superlattice nanorods on Si (111) Lead Investigator: Roberto Myers, Materials Science and Engineering
• Simulation and Characterization on GDC Nano-islands Lead Investigator: Yunzhi Wang, Materials Science and Engineering; Co-Investigator: Suliman Dregia, Materials Science and Engineering
• Semiconductor Nanowire Synthesis by Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition Lead Investigator: Fengyuan Yang, Physics and Engineering

Ten new research projects were awarded by the IMR in January 2009, for a total investment of $20,000. The ten projects support 13 faculty researchers from seven departments within the College of Engineering and the College of Biological, Mathematical and Physical Sciences

• Magnetic Force Microscopy of Magnetic Nanoparticles in Biological Systems Lead Investigator: Gunjan Agarwal, Biomedical Engineering ; Co-Investigator: Chris Hammel, Physics
• Strong NDR from Metal-Oxide/Conjugated Polymer Interfaces Enabling Low-Power, Plastic Logic, Memory and Wireless Datalinks Lead Investigator: Paul Berger, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Characterization of Multivalent Ionic Liquids for Nanolubrication Lead Investigator: Bharat Bhushan, Mechanical Engineering
• Enhance Program on Spintronic Phenomena in Organic-based Materials Lead Investigator: Arthur Epstein, Physics; Co-Investigators: Deniz Duman and Mark Murphey, Graduate Students
• Development of a Mechanically Robust Stem Cell Delivery System for Myocardial Injection Lead Investigator: Jianjun Guan, Materials Science and Engineering
• Nanoscale Modification of Diamond surface Conductivity Lead Investigator: Jay Gupta, Physics
• Development/Evaluation of Molecular Materials for Spintronics Lead Investigator: Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, Physics; Co-Investigator: Malcolm Chisholm, Chemistry
• Fabricating Magnetic Traps to Manipulate Nanoparticles and Biological Cells Lead Investigator: R. Sooryakumar, Physics; Co-Investigator: Jessica Winter, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
• Development of A Hybrid Microcantilever for Bi-directional Sensing and Actuating at the Small Scale Lead Investigator: Yi Zhao, Biomedical Engineering
• Innovative Micro and Nano Channels for Signal Transmission in Ion Transmission Lines Lead Investigator: Yuan Zheng, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Ohio State’s first NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC), the Center for Emergent Materials (CEM), has been officially awarded effective September 1, 2008!

This award is a major achievement for Ohio State’s materials community since the presence of a MRSEC on campus places OSU in a select group of universities generally acknowledged across the U.S. as the leading institutions in materials research and education.  The process that led to this crowning achievement comes after many years of tireless effort from many of you who are reading this note and is a true testament to our strengths in multi-disciplinary research focused on interdisciplinary issues.

As part of its mission as a university research institute tasked with developing externally-funded and nationally-recognized research centers, IMR is very proud to have helped enable and coordinate this fantastic team of researchers and educators led by the MRSEC Director and Principal Investigator Professor Nitin Padture of the Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering.

Full details of the $17M award ($10.8M from NSF and $6.2M from OSU in cost share).  An information sheet on the MRSEC CEM is available here.

Three new research projects and six renewals were awarded by the IMR in July 2008, for a total investment of $382,500.

2008 New IMRG Research Projects

Experimental and Computational Study of ALD-grown Dielectrics on III-Nitrides
Lead: Siddharth Rajan, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering; Co-Applicant: Wolfgang Windl, Materials Science and Engineering

Multi-Scale Characterization of Battery Materials for Improved Performance
Lead: Sudarsanam Suresh Babu, Industrial, Welding and Systems Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering; Co-Applicants: Bharat Bhushan, Mechanical Engineering; Yann Guezennec, Mechanical Engineering; Giorgio Rizzoni, Mechanical Engineering; Shrikant C. Nagpure (PhD Student), Mechanical Engineering

Solving the “Contact Problem” of Molecular Electronics via Atomic Layer Deposition
Lead: Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, Physics; Co-Applicants: Jonathan Pelz, Physics; Malcolm Chisholm, Chemistry

2008 IMRG Renewals

Chemically-triggered Materials Assembly from Synthetic Peptides and Soy Proteins
Lead: Dennis Bong, Chemistry; Co-Applicant: Stephen St. Martin, Horticulture and Crop Science (Year one extension and additional six months of funding awarded)

Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Solar Conversion Systems
Lead: Malcolm Chisholm, Chemistry; Co-Applicants: Arthur Epstein; Physics; Paul Berger, Electrical and Computer Engineering; Nitin Padture, Materials Science and Engineering; Terry Gustafson, Chemistry

Interfacial engineering and scaling of hybrid biological-electrical biosensing architectures based on wide-bandgap semiconductor GaN
Lead: Wu Lu, Electrical and Computer Engineering; Co-Applicants: Leonard J. Brillson ; Electrical and Computer Engineering; Stephen C. Lee, Biomedical Engineering

Intra-Operative Fluorescence for Cancer Detection
Lead: Claudia Turro, Chemistry; Co-Applicants: Joseph Heremans, Mechanical Engineering (previous Lead on this project); Robert Lee, Electrical & Computer Engineering; Edward Martin, Jr, Surgery; Stephen Povoski, Surgery; Vish Subramaniam, Mechanical Engineering; Ronald Xu, Biomedical Engineering ; George Hinkle, Pharmacy; Nathan Hall, Radiology

Materials with magnetic ordering and low loss for new high frequency applications
Lead: Hendrik Verweij, Materials Science and Engineering; Co-Applicants: John Volakis, Electrical and Computer Engineering; Patrick Woodward, Chemistry

Novel active structure design exploiting 3D multi-functional materials
Lead: Stephen Bechtel, Mechanical Engineering; Co-Applicants: Marcelo Dapino, Mechanical Engineering; Michael Mills, Materials Science and Engineering

The Ohio Department of Development has announced that The Ohio State University will receive an Ohio Research Scholars Program award totaling over $18 million to fund its proposal, Technology-Enabling and Emergent Materials.

The award funds two endowed Ohio Research Scholars positions for The Ohio State University, a Nanoscale Materials Microscopist and a Molecular Chemist; one Ohio Research Scholar at University of Dayton, a Multi-scale Composites Processing Chair; and one Ohio Research Scholar at University of Akron, a Polymer/Biomolecular Engineer. In addition, the award allows Ohio State to fund internally a third OSU Ohio Research Scholar, a Molecular Biochemist.

These five Ohio Research Scholars will work together in a unique research cluster to pioneer revolutionary approaches to materials development, leveraging the existing materials science strengths of the three partner universities. The OSU Institute for Materials Research was integral to the success of this proposal, having coordinated the proposal development process. IMR will continue to provide leadership with this program through coordination the collaborative projects undertaken by this cluster of Scholars.