“Cheap, functional, reliable things unleash the creativity of people who then build stuff that you could not imagine. There’s no way of predicting the Internet based on the first transistor” …. George M. Whitesides
About our research |
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Our group is interested in frugal science/innovation, the ability to minimize cost and complexity while providing efficient solutions to better the human conditions. We are, by necessity, an inter-disciplinary physical-organic/materials research group interested in engineering soft matter, understanding surfaces and interfaces at all size scales. Our research focuses on the development of a generalized framework for engineering structures and ultimately functional devices via self-assembly and/or stacking of molecules, films, or layers of materials, to introduce new function(s) or utility. |
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FundingWe are grateful to the following organizations for supporting our work. |
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ANNUAL HIGHLIGHTS
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Recent news:
2021
May 17, 2022 | Congratulations to Shawn, Scarlett and Jiahao on accepted paper in Angew. Chemie! Multi-year effort to fully resolve the Whitesides-Porter discrepancy. |
Apr. 28, 2022 | Congratulations Shawn, his paper is featured on the cover of J. Phy. Chem. C!
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Mar. 29, 2022 | The group (with Prof. Ward) is awarded a $1M grant to develop methods for ‘recovery at point of disposal’! |
Mar. 28, 2022 | Congratulations to Alana for being named a ‘brown fellowship’ awardee!! |
Mar. 28, 2022 | Congratulations Shawn on accepted paper that will feature on the cover of JPC C!! |
Feb. 15, 2022 | Our paper on ‘beyond Hume-Rothery rules’ is accepted in ACS applied nano materials!! |
Jan 18, 2022 | New patent on undercooled particles issued!!
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Jan 2, 2022 | Martin awarded the ‘Schafer 2050 professorship’ by the college of engineering |
Aug 11, 2021 | Great re-union on the ICANX stage; former PhD students, four friends, colleagues and collaborators talking great science! Join us on Friday as Prof. Nijhuis gives a talk on the future of molecular electronics
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Former student, Dr. Julia Chang takes on the world to share a story of passion, persistence and an undying curiosity that allowed her to put together an amazing body of work under non-ideal conditions. SMMT is very proud of her success!
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Aug 13, 2021 | Martin is a panelist at the ICAN-X talks
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July 15, 2021 | Congratulations Paul for successfully defending your PhD thesis. |
June 15, 2021 | Congratulations Shawn for successfully defending your PhD thesis. |
June 1, 2021 | Congratulations to Souvik for successfully defending your PhD thesis (jointly mentored with Prof. Cademartiri) |
May 18, 2021 | Martin is named to the international advisory board of Angewandte Chemie!! Congratulations Martin. |
May 10, 2021 | Congratulations Shawn for a postdoc offer weeks to thesis defense!! |
May 10, 2021 | Collaborative work with Jiang’s lab is accepted in Nanoscale Advances! Congratulations Emily and Shawn! |
Mar 23, 2021 | We are on the inside front cover of Material Horizons!! Featured on:
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Mar 01, 2021 | We are on the cover of the current issue of Angew. Chemie! Congratulations Andrew and co-authors.
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Feb. 26, 2021 | Congratulations Paul and co-authors, for a book chapter accepted in ‘Biopolymers and composites’ by S. Madbouly! |
Feb. 17, 2021 |
Congratulations to Julia and co-authors for a paper accepted in Angew. Chemie!!
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Jan. 19, 2021 | Congratulations to Andrew and co-authors for a paper accepted in Material horizons |
Jan 13, 2021 | Congratulations!! our Angew. Chem. paper will appear on the front cover in an upcoming issue!!
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2020
Dec. 30, 2020 | What a way to end the year! Congratulations Andrew and co-authors for a paper accepted in Angew. Chem.!! |
Dec. 20, 2020 | Congratulations Andrew for a postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley/LBNL!! |
Dec. 8, 2020 | Congratulations Andrew for receiving the Research Excellence Award! |
Dec. 4, 2020 | Martin is giving an ‘ACSnano rising star’ talk at the ICan-X talk forum
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Nov. 20, 2020 | Our work is featured on the back cover of Advanced Materials Interfaces!
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Nov. 14, 2020 | Celebrating 2 Ph.D. graduates from this semester. Dr. Chang and Dr. Martin!
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Nov. 10, 2020 | Check our the cover for our perspective article (part of up and coming series)
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Nov. 5, 2020 | Congratulations to Dr. Andrew Martin on passing his PhD thesis defense!! way to go after 6-for-6 journal covers to finish the thesis. |
Oct. 19, 2020 | Congratulations to Dr. Julia Chang (co-mentored with Prof. Cademartiri) on passing her PhD thesis defense! |
Oct. 10, 2020 | Congratulations Andrew for receiving the Karl Gschneider Go for Gold award!
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Sept. 17, 2020 | Congratulations Martin for receiving the patent award at Iowa State CoE’s Fall 2020 Convocation
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Sept. 14, 2020 | Congratulations Andrew for an “up & Coming” perspective accepted in Chem. Mater.! |
Sept. 10, 2020 | Our work on polydispersity driven printing is out on Advanced Materials Interfaces |
Sept. 8, 2020 | Our work is featured on the cover of ACS Materials Letters and as a frontispiece in Angew!!
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Sept. 1, 2020 |
The group was awarded two patents on Self-stiffening materials and e-waste recycling.
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Aug. 31, 2020 |
BIOMAP featured on Forbes Magazine! |
Aug. 27, 2020 | BIOMAP got covered in Iowa State News. |
Aug. 24, 2020 | Congratulations to Andrew and co-workers for a paper accepted in Advanced Materials Interfaces!! A collaboration with Ward’s group. |
Aug. 17, 2020 | Congratulations to Boyce, Andrew and co-authors on their paper in ACS Matt. Letts.! A collaboration with @Rossini and Gong Labs. First paper from the group on catalysis! |
Aug. 13, 2020 | Martin got quoted in a NY Times article! |
July. 14, 2020 | Congratulations to Julia, Andrew and team on a ‘hot paper’ paper published in Angew. Chemie reporting extension of soft-lithography to solid metals. |
Apr. 29, 2020 | Congratulations Andrew on receiving the GPSS research award!
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Apr. 4, 2020 | Congratulations Martin on getting tenure! |
Apr. 1, 2020 | Thanks to all SMMT lab members (current and former), our hard work has lead to promotion of our PI to associate professor with tenure. Congratulations!! |
Mar. 12, 2020 | Congratulations to Atte who is headed to Harvard in the fall! |
Jan. 30, 2020 | Another coverage on chameleon metals on Advanced Science News |
Jan. 13, 2020 | Our work on Chameleon metals is featured on Iowa State News, EurekAlert (AAAS) and Phys.org! |
Jan. 7, 2020 | Great beginning of the decade. We have a new granted patent!
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Jan 2, 2020 | Our work on Chameleon metals is featured in this week’s Angewandte Chemie front cover.
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2019
Dec. 13, 2019 | We’re featured on this year’s C&EN‘s Delight of the Year!
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Dec. 6, 2019 | Our work on Chameleon metals is featured in Angewandte Chemie front cover. |
Nov. 19, 2019 | Congratulations Andrew and team for an article accepted in Angewandte Chemie! |
Oct. 30, 2019 | Excited to receive continuing funding from John Deere and new grant (with SAFI-TECH) from ARL through SEMI/FlexTech! |
Oct. 1, 2019 | Our work is featured in this week’s Advanced Functional Material inside back cover.
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Sept 27, 2019 |
Our work featured in DesignNews, Congratulations Andrew and team! |
July 31, 2019 | Check out our news coverage on WHO-TV Channel 13!
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July 24, 2019 | Our article on heat-free conductive interconnects is featured on C&EN, Iowa State News and Electronics Weekly!
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July 6, 2019 |
Congratulations Dr. Boyce and team for a paper (in collaboration with Rossini group) accepted in Nanoscale! |
July 3, 2019 | Congratulations to Andrew and team for an article accepted in advanced functional materials! |
May 28, 2019 |
A wonderful end to the spring semester! Made even better by two granted patents!
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May 2, 2019 | Congratulations Atte for receiving the 2019 Goldwater scholar award |
Apr. 11, 2019 | Our collaborative work with Bratlie’s lab is accepted for publication! Congratulations Dr. Chang and co-authors! |
Apr. 10, 2019 | Congratulations Andrew for ‘Best oral presentation’ award at the GPSRC 2019 conference!
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Mar. 03, 2019 | Congratulations Dr. Boyce Chang for a postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. Xu at UC Berkeley! Wishing you all the best. |
Feb. 22, 2019 | Our collaborative work with 3SR labs and G2E lab (Grenoble, France)-on rapid prototyping with smart (ST3R) composite, is accepted for publication! |
Feb. 7, 2019 |
Our collaborative work on self-stiffening ((ST3R) composites is featured in Material Horizons most popular articles. Congratulations Boyce and co-authors. |
Feb. 6, 2019 | Congratulations Jiahao, Thomas, Atte and Boyce. Their paper on interface odd-even effects is featured on PCCP 2018 HOT Articles |
Jan. 24, 2019 | Congratulations Martin on winning the IINSPIRE LSAMP Excellence in Mentoring Award! |
2018
Dec. 14, 2018 | Congratulations Dr. Chang! Well deserved!
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Nov 26, 2018 | Prof. Thuo presents an invited plenary talk on our work on frugal engineering at the UN blue economy conference.
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Nov 5, 2018 | Dr Boyce Chang is featured in CoE news for his teaching and mentoring awards. Congratulations! |
Oct 31, 2018 | Congratulations Dr. Boyce Chang on successfully defending your PhD thesis! |
Oct 5, 2018 | Congratulations Boyce Chang for well-deserved recognition through the graduate college ‘Research excellence’ and ‘Teaching Excellence’ awards! |
Sept 12, 2018 |
Our collaborative work with SMS lab is featured in cyclone engineering research. |
Sept 5, 2018 | A collaborative paper with prof. Yoon’s OMML group is accepted in JACS! |
Aug 28, 2018 | Congratulations Martin for getting the Best Paper in the Coll:nanomaterials session at ACS National Meeting Boston! |
Aug 20, 2018 | Our paper (a collaboration with Prof. Yoon’s OMML group) is accepted in J. Phys. Chem. Lett. |
Aug 17, 2018 | We are delighted to receive support from U.S. department of energy through a joint proposal with Sep-All. |
Aug 17, 2018 | From Stanford to space! Kudos to Atte for a 2018-2019 Iowa Space Consortium fellowship! |
Aug 7, 2018 | Congratulations to Andrew for passing the preliminary exam! |
Aug 3, 2018 | Congratulations to Andrew for ‘best poster award’ at the Nano@IAState conference |
Aug 3, 2018 | Congratulation to Boyce, for being selected to give a graduate student talk at the Nano@IAState conference |
July 19, 2018 | Congratulations Paul, Andrew and Boyce for a paper accepted in Frontiers in Chemistry! |
July 5, 2018 |
A collaborative work with Badu-Tawiah’s group is published in Anal. Chem.! |
June 22, 2018 | Thanks tec21 for supporting a month long visit to our collaborators at 3SR Labs |
May 17, 2018 | Boyce visits SUTD and gives a talk in Singapore! |
May 2, 2018 | Our work on ST3R composite has been awarded 2018 TechConnect Innovation award! |
May 1, 2018 | Boyce and team featured on the cover of Macromol rapid commn! |
Apr. 16, 2018 | Congratulations to Boyce, Andrew, Paul, Shawn, Souvik and Millicent for a paper accepted in MRS Advances! |
Apr. 12, 2018 | Congratulations to Joel, Boyce, Andrew et. al. for a paper accepted in ACSnano!! |
Apr. 11, 2018 | Congratulations to Andrew for winning the best oral presentation award at the GPSS symposium |
Mar. 8, 2018 | Martin featured as researcher of the month by ACS Poly.
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Mar. 1, 2018 | Check out Materials Today for more coverage on smart composite. |
Feb. 20, 2018 | Another coverage on smart composite. design-engineering.com |
Feb. 19, 2018 | More media coverage on smart composite on WHO Channel 13 News! |
Feb. 15, 2018 | Our work on smart composite (ST3R) is featured on phys.org!
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Feb. 12, 2018 | Congratulations to Boyce and team on accepted paper on Macromolecular Rapid Communications! |
Feb. 8, 2018 | Congratulations to Jiahao for receiving the IINSPIRE-LSAMP Mentor award!
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Feb. 1, 2018 | Congratulations to Mario, Boyce and team for an accepted paper in ACS Omega! |
Jan. 23, 2018 | Congratulations to Boyce, Ravi (Bartlett group) and team for an accepted paper in Materials Horizons! |
Jan. 22, 2018 | Our research on surface and interface engineering has received funding from John Deere! |
Jan. 12, 2018 | Prof. Thuo will be giving a seminar for the ECpE department on January 22nd on affordable sensors and devices on flexible platforms |
Jan. 12, 2018 | Congratulations to Jiahao, Atte, Joe and Boyce for a paper accepted in Phys. Chem Chem. Phys. |
Jan. 4, 2018 | Congratulations to Atte and Andrea for receiving funding support from the IINSPIRE-LSAMP program! |
Jan. 4, 2018 | Congratulations Boyce on passing the preliminary exam! |
Jan. 3, 2018 | Read about Dr. Jiahao Chen, and his unique research experience as a graduate student and postdoctoral researcher. Iowa State Engineering News |
2017
Dec. 15, 2017 | Congratulation to Dr. Jiahao Chen and Joel Cutinho on their commencement. All the best in your next ventures at Northwestern (Dr. Chen) and Silicon Valley (Joel)!![]() |
Dec. 4, 2017 | Congratulations to Atte Kadoma for an Iowa Space Consortium grant award! |
Nov. 28, 2017 | We are on the cover of Langmuir!! Congratulations Jiahao and team |
Nov. 28, 2017 | Congratulations to Dr. Jiahao Chen and Dr. Stephanie Oyola for wonderful postdoctoral offers at Northwestern University and Harvard University respectively. |
Oct. 13, 2017 | Congratulations to Jiahao and team for a paper accepted in J. Phys. Chem. C |
Oct. 9, 2017 | Congratulations to Atte Kadoma for winning 2nd place at the Annual LSMCE Conference in Indianapolis! |
Sep. 5, 2017 | Congratulations to Joel for successfully defending his MS thesis! |
Aug. 4, 2017 | Congratulations to Dr. Jiahao Chen for an invited feature article accepted in Langmuir! |
Jul. 12, 2017 | Congratulations to Jiahao Chen for successfully defending his PhD thesis! Way to go Dr. Chen. |
May. 15, 2017 | Welcomes Mario Fratzl, visiting scholar from Institut Néel – CNRS, Université Grenoble. |
May. 4, 2017 | Stephanie graduates as PhD #1 from the group. Congratulations Stephanie. |
May. 3, 2017 | Congratulations to Stephanie on being awarded a Rohit Trivedi Award |
May. 3, 2017 | Congratulations to Jiahao Chen on being awarded a Melba and Karl Gschneidner Go for the Gold Student Research Prize |
May. 2, 2017 | Congratulations to Jiahao and colleagues for an accepted paper in ACSomega! |
May. 2, 2017 | Congratulations to Boyce and colleagues for an accepted paper in polymer chemistry! |
Apr. 26, 2017 | Delighted to have been honored with a faculty research excellence award by the department! Way to go team!
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Apr. 4, 2017 | Congratulations Stephanie for ‘Best 3MT’ presentation award! |
Mar. 13, 2017 | We are featured as a ‘must-see-presenter’ in the Spring 2017 ACS conference!
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Mar. 7, 2017 | Congratulations to Jiahao and team, our work is featured on the back cover of Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.
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Feb. 4, 2017 | Congratulations to Jiahao and team for their paper in Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.! |
Feb. 4, 2017 | Congratulations Boyce on being awarded the LSAMP-IINSPIRE mentor award! |
Jan. 1, 2017 | Congratulations to Stephanie and team for their paper accepted in Biomicrofluidics! Way to begin the year! |
2016
Dec. 19, 2016 | Stephanie passes her prelims, Congratulations! |
Dec. 15, 2016 | Our research is named as one of top research advances in 2016 by the C&EN news (American Chemical Society)
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Nov. 29, 2016 | Congratulations Chris, our RIF award for work on separation is featured by the department!! |
Nov. 29, 2016 | Jiahao and Stephanie honored with ‘Research Excellence Award’ by the graduate college. Congratulations! |
Nov. 29, 2016 | Jiahao passes his prelims, congratulations! |
Nov. 16, 2016 | Our Research (through Safi-Tech) wins the 2016 technical development – materials award in Printed electronics at the IDTechEx
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Aug. 31, 2016 | Congratulations to Jiahao and Stephanie for their accepted papers in J. Mat. Chem. A, Langmuir, and RSC Advances! Way to start the semester! |
Aug. 12, 2016 | We made news again, this time on Ames tribune! |
Aug. 8, 2016 | We are in the news! See our coverage in NBC affiliate WHO13! |
Aug. 5, 2016 | Welcome Joseph Giroux, our 2016/17 McNair scholar! |
Jun. 16, 2016 | Our group has been awarded a regents RIF phase II grant! |
May. 20, 2016 | Our work is featured in BNR1 radio (Dutch) |
May. 4, 2016 | Welcome Gio, our summer LSAMP IINSPIRE intern. |
May. 4, 2016 | Congratulations to our graduating class, we wish you all the best in the next chapter of your career |
May. 4, 2016 | Congratulations to Jake who is headed to UC Berkeley!! |
Mar. 11, 2016 | More coverage, we are in the C&EN! |
Mar. 4, 2016 | More news coverage of our heat-free soldering! |
Mar. 4, 2016 | We are in the news! Our paper on under-cooled particles is feature in Nature News!
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Feb. 4, 2016 | Congratulations to Simge, Ian and Jiahao for getting their paper accepted in scientific reports! |
For older news, please check our archives page here
Affiliations:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames. Link
Microelectronic Research Center, Iowa State University, Ames. Link
Biopolymers Biocomposites Research Team, Iowa State University, Ames. Link
Center for Biopolymers & Biocomposites (CB2), Iowa State University, Ames. Link
Center for Crop Utilization Research, Iowa State University, Ames. Link
Positions Available:
We are looking for talented post-docs, graduate, and undergraduate students. Please contact Prof. Thuo (mthuo at iastate.edu).