NanoMaterials Fall 2010

POWER PLANT WASTE TO ENERGIZE OIL SPILL CLEANUP coal-burning facility and reused.

The flyash will be safe, preserve the oil’s energy-generating capabilities and be reusable once the oil is burned off.

“It’s a completely green process, very cost effective and easy to scale up,” said Dr. Seal.

The flyash will be retrieved from the water in a low-cost mesh packaging material and then transported to a coalburning power plant or other facility where the oil will fuel production processes.

Specially treated waste material from electric power plants will soon be used to clean up oil in the Gulf thanks to the ingenuity of Dr. Sudipta Seal.

The National Science Foundation awarded Dr. Seal and Dr. Larry Hench a $67,000 grant to turn waste material, commonly referred to as flyash, into a cleaning agent.

Dr. Seal and his team of graduate students will modify the flyash so that it absorbs oil and can be delivered to a

REMYELINATION

AND THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM Hybrid Systems Lab at United Spinal Expo,

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2

UCF SELECTED to conduct nuclear energy experiments that will advance research in nuclear fuels and help extend the lifetime of structural components in nuclear systems

NATIONAL SCIENCE “ The FOUNDATION awarded Dr. Seal a $67,000 grant to turn waste material into a cleaning agent ”

IN THIS

EDITION

Energizing Oil Spill Cleanup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Hybrid Systems Lab at United Spinal Expo. . . . . 2 UCF to host nuclear energy experiments. . . . . 2 Faculty Profile: Artëm Masunov. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Detections of Lung Cancer Biomarkers. . . . . . 4 Graduate News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5 Faculty Profile: Linan An . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Student News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Message from the Director. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Staff Spotlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-8

Advanced Materials Processing & Analysis Center | NanoScience Technology Center

Volume 3, Issue 2 • Fall 2010

REMYELINATION AND THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM United Spinal Association 2010 Independence Expo October 1-2, 2010 Orlando, FL

better understanding of the potential applications within the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis, spinal cord repair, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s.

Dr. Stephen Lambert (pictured at left), an Associate Professor in the College of Medicine and a member of UCF’s Hybrid Systems Laboratory reported on a four-year, $1.9 million project to study the breakdown of myelin, a substance that coats and protects nerves in-side the brain and spinal cord, enabling electrical signals to reach distant nerve cells and muscles. Presenting with his esteemed colleague Dr. James Hickman (pictured at right), the two researchers are working to solve the complexities of creating a test bed for functional cellular systems within the nanoscience lab. The results of which may bring us a

UCF SELECTED TO CONDUCT NUCLEAR ENERGY EXPERIMENTS The Idaho National Laboratory Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility (ATR NSUF) has selected a University of Central Florida research project to conduct nuclear energy experiments that will advance research in nuclear fuels and help extend the lifetime of structural components in nuclear systems. Other universities receiving awards in FY11 are Texas A&M, University of Michigan, Boise State and Drexel University. The project from UCF is lead by Dr. Yong-Ho Sohn, and entitled “Low Fluence Behavior of Metallic Fuels.” Prof. Sohn and his graduate students will examine irradiation enhanced defects evolution and diffusion in materials along with the project team

members that include co-PIs from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Ohio State University. Extensive materials characterization will be carried out using UCF’s Materials Characterization Facility (http://ampac.ucf. edu/facilities/MCF.php) before irradiation and INL’s PostIrradiation Examination facility after irradiation. The ATR NSUF is one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Scientific User Facilities located throughout the country that grants universities access to world-class facilities with the goal of facilitating the advancement of science and technology. More information on the program and UCF’s research project can be found in http://atrnsuf.inl.gov/.

Dr. Yong-Ho Sohn’s research group, Laboratory of Materials and Coatings for Extreme Environments: Yongho Sohn, Joshua Bush, Prabhakar Mohan, Travis Patterson, William Sprowe, Emmanuel Perez, Bo Yao, Keeahn Lee, Ashley Ewh, Catalina Uribe, Carmen Bargraser, Sarah Brennan, Clara Hofmeister, Hyunju Choi. Not pictured: Joseph Hamilton, Judith Dickson, Katrina Bermudez

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www.ampac.ucf.edu

FACULTY PROFILE ARTËM MASUNOV Assistant Professor Masunov received his Ph.D. degree in Physical and Theoretical Chemistry from The City University of New York in 2000. He joined the NanoScience Technology Center and the Department of Chemistry at UCF in 2005, after his three year stay at Los Alamos National Lab as a Technical Staff Member. While at UCF, he received the National Science Foundation SGER award (~$80K) as a principal investigator and Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Team (NIRT) award (~$1.1 million) and Collaborative Research in Chemistry (CRC) award (~$1.8 million) as a part of a team. He has also been a co-PI in DOD and NASA grants. During his faculty career, Masunov supervised and graduated six Ph.D. and four M.S. students. To date, he published 70 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He also serves on the editorial board for a Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) journal—Nanomaterials.

Dr. Masunov’s research covers three areas: (1) linear and nonlinear optical spectroscopy, photophysics, and photochemistry; (2) inorganic and nanostructured materials; (3) aggregation of polymethine dyes, polymers, proteins, and peptides. The first direction had been the main focus of Masunov’s group.

Developing organic materials that exhibit specific properties upon interaction with light (strong twophoton absorption, ultrafast photoswitching, and efficient triplet generation) has numerous technological applications. Masunov’s group developed a new method within Density Functional Theory, dubbed ATDA which allowed for accurate predictions of photochemical and nonlinear optical properties of organic materials, as well as for conceptual understanding of the nature of these properties. The accuracy of this and other methods in prediction of specific properties were benchmarked.

In collaboration with several experimental groups, DFT methods were applied to solve the practical problems.

These research accomplishments were recognized with the Hewlett-Packard Outstanding Junior Faculty Award by the American Chemical Society. In a more recent theoretical development, Dr. Masunov solved a long-standing problem of the charge transfer states in DFT. His work on frozen density approximation was recognized with the Wiley Young Investigator Award by International Journal of Quantum Chemistry. www.nanoscience.ucf.edu

Another direction in Dr. Masunov’s research is first prin-ciples simulations of inorganic materials, that help to obtain the information on atomistic details of their function. Masunov’s group established the cationic disorder, square not linear oxygen vacancy clustering and Jahn-Teller distortion assisted vacancy diffusion in Co/ Fe based perovskites, a perspective solid oxide fuel cell material. They investigated spectra and photoconductivity changes in CdSe semiconducting nanocrystals upon their oxidation on air, relations between electronic and atomic structure in small Nickel clusters used as the catalysts in carbon nanotube synthesis, as well as bonding patterns in the transition metal hydrides and carbides. They also explained the enhancement in Erbium f-f absorption NIR band when silicon nanoclusters are embedded in silica matrix. In a series of joined theoretical/experimental papers Dr. Masunov and Dr. Seal at NSTC studied the role of the surface oxygen vacancies in ceria nanoparticles.

Thermodynamics and kinetics of biofunctionalization, role of dopants in the vacancy formation, as well as role of vacancies on localization of 4f states, and on formation of the new vacancies had also been studied.

More recently, Dr. Masunov turned his attention to the aggregation and self-assembly phenomena. Aggregation determines organization of many organic materials, and molecular dynamics simulations of self-assembly is a promising tool for computational materials engineering. Dr. Masunov discovered counterintuitive blue shift in 2PA spectra of J-aggregates, and effect of polymorphism on exciton localization in conducting polymers.

The nature of the conducting polymer was found to affect the competition between the polymer aggregation and polymer wrapping in of carbon nanotube in the composites prepared for organic photovoltaic. Masunov’s group also investigated the role of aggregation inhibitors and mutations on formation of amyloid aggregates responsible for Altzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, determined the size of the critical nucleolus, and established the role of dynamic cooperative effects during the amyloid growth.

Recently, Masunov turned his attention to aggregation and self-assembly phenomena Dr. Masunov has been mainly teaching the undergraduate level courses (Nanophotonics, Physical Chemistry II and Chemistry Fundamentals) for the Department of Chemistry and Interdisciplinary Studies Program, as well as graduate level course (Wavefunction Theory) for the Department of Physics.

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CONGRATULATIONS TO NANO MATERIALS GRADUATES On behalf of the Director, Nano Materials faculty and staff, we would like to extend heartiest congratulations to all our students who graduated in 2010. We commend your dedication, hard work and tenacity and are extremely proud of your accomplishment.

AMPAC (MSE) Graduates Dr. Sudipta Seal’s student Abhilash Vincent graduated with a doctoral degree in Materials Science and Engineering. His thesis title was “Probing the Nanoscale Interaction Forces and Elastic Properties of Organic and Inorganic Materials Using Force Distance (F-D) Spectroscopy”.

A student of Dr. Sudipta Seal, Ajay Karakoti earned his doctorate in Materials Science and Engineering. His thesis was entitled “Tuning the Properties of Nanomaterials as a Function of Surface and Environment”.

Dr. Yong-Ho Sohn from AMPAC graduated one Doctoral and two Master’s students from the Materials Science and Engineering Program in 2010. His doctoral student Prabhakar Mohan’s thesis title was “Environmental Degradation of Air Plasma sprayed Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Coatings”.

Dr. Sohn’s two Masters students who also graduated from the Materials Science and Engineering program include: Brittany Kerr with thesis titled “Strengthening Potential of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes in Phenolic Resin Composites” and JeanPaul Vega-Garcia with thesis titled “Microstructural Investigation of Precipitation Hardened Cu-Ni-Si-Zr Alloys for Rotor Application”.

ENABLING HIGHLY SENSITIVE DETECTIONS OF MULTIPLE LUNG CANCER BIOMARKERS USING NANOPARTICLES Early detection of lung cancer is crucial for treatment and survival. Although there are over one hundred biomarkers associated with lung cancers, a major challenge exists for biomarker-based early detection of lung cancers because most biomarkers are not effective, have low concentrations, exist at different stages, and need extensive effort to prepare samples. One approach to enhance diagnostic accuracy is to use multiple lung cancer biomarkers, where even if each biomarker has low power, their combination can provide accurate information. To detect cancer biomarkers, a number of nanoparticles with unique optical, electric, magnetic, or electrochemical properties have been used. Further, nanoparticle-based detections have achieved extremely high sensitivity via the conversion of biological recognition events into measurable physical signals that can be amplified.

Nanoparticle-based methods are limited, however, due to their low multiplicity, as only one or several

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types of biomarkers can be detected at one time, and screening one sample for multiple biomarkers requires extensive time and effort. Thus, to enhance detection, Dr. Ming Su, recipient of a Fiscal Year 2009 Lung Cancer Research Program Concept Award, will develop a new technique for highly sensitive detection of multiple protein biomarkers using encapsulated phase change nanoparticles of differing metals or alloys as thermal barcodes. It is anticipated that the high multiplicity, sensitivity, and reliability of the unique alloy nanoparticles will allow the early detections of multiple cancer biomarkers in small amounts of sample, thereby ensuring effective treatment of lung cancer patients.

Figure: Protein biomarker (2) detection using encapsulated phase change nanoparticles (3) and magnetic bead separation (1)

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AMPAC (MSE) Graduates (continued) Dr. Raj Vaidyanathan and Dr. Kevin Coffey from AMPAC each graduated one Doctoral student each in 2010. Dr. Vaidyanathan’s student Shipeng Qui whose thesis was titled “Investigation of Thermal, Elastic and Load-biased Transformation Strains in NiTi Shape Memory Alloys” graduated from the Materials Science and Engineering Program with a Ph.D. Dr. Coffey’s student, Tik Sun also graduated with a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering with a thesis titled “Classical Size Effect in Sub-45nm Cu Interconnects: Impact of Surface and Grain Boundary Scattering on Resistivity”.

Dr. Jiyu Fang, a faculty member of AMPAC, graduated a Master’s student Xuejun Zhang whose thesis was titled “Branched and Spiral Nanotubes based on the Self-Assembly of Bile Acids”.

Other MSE Graduates

NSTC Graduates

In addition to AMPAC faculty advising and graduating Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) students, several faculty from other academic units at UCF also advised and graduated the following three doctoral and two Master’s students.

The following students received their doctoral degrees from various disciplines across the University under the advisement of NSTC faculty members highlighting NSTC’s interdisciplinary mission:

Dr. Masahiro Ishigami’s (Dept of Physics) student Christian W Smith received an MSMSE with the thesis titled “Transport Properties of Graphene Nanoribbons”.

Hubert Seigneur a student jointly advised by Drs. Michael N. Leuenberger (NSTC) & Winston Schoenfeld (School of Optics) received a Ph.D. in Optics with his thesis titled “Modelling and design of photonic crystal chip”.

Dr. Ming Su’s (NanoScience Technology Center) student Chaoming Wang whose thesis title was “Thermal Detection of Biomarkers using Phase Change Nanoparticles” received a Master’s degree in MSE.

Dr. Saiful Khondaker’s student Paul Stokes earned a Ph.D. in Physics with his thesis titled “Controlled Assembly and Electronic Transport studies of solution processed carbon Nanotube devices”.

Dr. Neelkanth Dhere’s (Florida Solar Energy Center) student Eigo Takahashi received his M.S. in MSE with the thesis title “Correlation Between Preparation Parameters and Properties of Molybdenum Back Contact Layer for CIGS Thin Film Solar Cells”.

Dr. Lei Zhai graduated two doctoral students from the Department of Chemistry. Anindarupa Chunder’s thesis title was “Fabrication of Functional Nanostructures Using Polyelectrolyte Nanocomposites and Reduced Graphene Oxide Assemblies”, and Sourangsu Sarkar’s thesis title was “The Fabrication of Polymer-Derived SiCN/ SiBCN Ceramic Nanostructures and Investigation of Their Structure-Property Relationship”.

Dr. Glenn Boreman’s (School of Optics) student, David Shelton graduated with his Ph.D. in MSE with the thesis title “Tunable Infrared Metamaterials”.

Dr. C. Suryanarayana‘s (Materials, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering) student Uma Seelam received her doctoral degree in Materials Science and Engineering with her thesis titled “Structural Characterization of SputterDeposited SS304+xAl (x=0, 3,7 and 10 wt.%) Coatings and Mechanically Milled Ti, Zr, and Hf Powders”.

Ying Sun graduated with a doctoral degree in MSE with the thesis titled “Mechanical Properties of Carbon Nanotube/Metal Nanocomposites”. Ying was advised by Dr. Quanfang Chen from the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering.

In addition, Andrew Kelly, David Dorough, Fei Liang, Lalit Shokeen, Michael Mendoza, Snehal Mohadikar, Tanmay Bera, Uma Seelam, William Rigdon received a Master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering via the non-thesis option.

www.nanoscience.ucf.edu

Dr. Jesus M. Perez’s student Charalambos Kaittannis was awarded a doctoral degree in the Department of Biomedical Sciences with his thesis titled “Magnetic nanosensors for multiplexed bacterial pathogenesis identification”.

Dr. James Hickman graduated one doctoral and one Master’s student in Fall 2010. His doctoral student Anupama Natarajan received her degree from the Department of Biomedical Sciences for her thesis on “Patterned Cell Cultures for High Throughput Studies of Cell Electrophysiology and Drug Screening Applications”.

Abhijeet Bhalkikar earned his Master’s in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science under the thesis option. His thesis was “Study of the Interactions of Proteins, Cells and Tissues with Biomaterials” under the supervision of Dr. Hickman.

Albert Leyte-Vidal was jointly supervised by Drs. James Hickman (NanoScience Technology Center) and Nicoleta Hickman (Florida Solar Energy Center). Albert received his Master’s degree.

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FACULTY PROFILE: LINAN AN Dr. An received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Lehigh University in 1996. He joined the Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center at UCF in 2001, after his four year stay at Cornell University and the University of Colorado at Boulder as a Research Associate. While at UCF, he received approximately $2M in research grants from the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, etc. as PI and/or co-PI. To date, he has published 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals, exceeding 1300 total citations and an h-index of 20. He also serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Materials Science and Technology; and as an organizer for several national/international conferences.

Dr. An’s major research covers three areas: (1) hightemperature micro-sensors; (2) polymer-derived ceramics; and (3) nanocomposites. His group is the first to use polymerderived ceramics for high-temperature sensor applications.

Several new material systems with unique properties and high-temperature durability and associated microfabrication technologies have been specifically developed for such applications. Recently, they developed a material with ultrahigh piezoresistivity, which opens a new opportunity to make highly sensitive sensors for numerous applications in extreme environments.

Another focus of the group is to fundamentally understand

the electronic properties, mechanical properties and thermal stability of polymer-derived ceramics as a function of their compositions and structures. They clarified the mechanisms underneath the unusual conducting behavior of these materials. An’s group has also been working on light-weight aluminum/magnesium metal matrix nanocomposites. The composites with ultra-high strength and ultra-high ductility have been developed. A new strengthening mechanism has been developed for this type of nanocomposites.

A major focus of An’s research group is energy storage, critical to our nation’s energy security More recently, Dr. An has turned his attention to the electronic energy storage materials. Energy storage has been singled out as perhaps the most critical technique to ensure our nation’s energy security. Based on the self-assembly capability of polymer-derived ceramics, his group developed two types of nano-composite materials for both Li-ion battery and ultracapacitor applications.

Dr. An received several honors/awards, including UCF Research Initiative (2007), Wang Kuancheng Scholarship, Wang Kuancheng Foundation, Hongkong (2009), and Changjiang Endowed Chair Professorship, Department of Education, China (2009).

STUDENT NEWS Originally from India, Anindarupa Chunder joined the NanoScience Technology Center in 2006 with a masters in Polymer Science & Technology and a bachelors in Chemistry. She joined the functional nanomaterials lab and pursued her research work under the mentorship of Prof. Lei Zhai.

Her research encompasses polymer assemblies and organic and inorganic nanostructures (particles, wires, rods etc) for their multidirectional applications. She has substantial experience in sophisticated research techniques and technologies involving fabrication of polymer based composite thin films by layer-by-layer self-assembly and their functionalization, surface modification of various materials, their testing and applications, electrospinning of nanofibers, synthesis of graphene based nanocomposites and various liquid coating deposition techniques. Her extensive exposure to surface measurement methods for characterization of nanomaterials and surface science analysis helped her gain expertise in various characterization techniques.

Her analytical approach and originality in thinking has won her several honors. She has 5 first author and 11 co-authored papers in International/National Journals. Apart from excellent publication credit she has presented her work in more than 12

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International/National/State level conferences. Anindarupa is proud achiever of NSF and DOE fellowship to present her work at the Inaugural Faraday Discussion Graduate Research Seminar (FD-GRS) and FD146’. In addition, she has earned many accolades on her presentations in various meetings.

Anindarupa has been very active in extracurricular activities, especially with taking responsibilities and assisting fellow students at the NanoScience Technology Center (NSTC). In 2008, she led two committees with a team of 8 NSTC students and successfully organized the NanoFlorida conference, the first nanoscience based confer-ence in the state of Florida. The conference had more than 80 oral and poster presentations and participation from seven universities. In the past four years at UCF, she has been a member of three educational societies and four student bodies. Some of the organizations that Anindarupa participated in are the Indian Awareness Council of Multicultural Student Center, Global Peers and NSTC Student Body.

Anindarupa has accepted an offer from IBM as a posdoctoral research associate.

Dr. Coffey’s doctoral student Andrew Warren has received the 2010 Ludo Frevel Crystallography Scholarship Award from the International Centre for Diffraction Data.

www.ampac.ucf.edu

MESSAGE FROM DIRECTOR SUDIPTA SEAL My warmest wishes for the Fall 2010 semester. Countless exciting things are taking place at AMPAC and NSTC. Let me first start with congratulating the students who received their MS and PhD degrees in Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry, Physics and Biomolecular Sciences. Our students are receiving well-paid jobs in these harsh economic times and winning scholarly awards. This is truly an achievement in itself. Also, this further supports our mission of interdisciplinary research with various departments across the campus. Our Materials Program continues to grow as evident from the recent NRC rankings where we did very well.

There are thrilling reports in the research arena to share. Researchers are focusing on nano, bio and energy related research and received recognition from DOD, NIH and NSF. The cutting-edge research taking place in our centers is certainly noteworthy and I would welcome you all to read this newsletter.

I am certainly pleased to announce, that The Idaho National Laboratory Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility (ATR NSUF) has selected a University of Central Florida research project to conduct

nuclear energy experiments that will advance research in nuclear fuels with other key schools in the country.

As part of our faculty highlights, both Artem and Linan are involved in cutting edge research. While Masunov turned his attention to aggregation and selfassembly phenomena, An is developing next generation ceramics for a myriad of applications. Once again NanoFlorida (our 3rd conf) was a great success. Kudos to Dr. Santra and the team of students who helped to organize the conference.

What can I say about Diane and Ernie?? They are truly the pillars of our centers and making sure we are doing things right. For sure, Ernie brought the cold spell to Florida when he moved from Chicago. Thanks Dude for making Orlando the windy city of the south!!

Another star should be noted. From horse shoe sculpting to maintaining the XPS machine at MCF – this is Kirk Scammon, our most prominent engineer. Beyond a doubt, we really do have a great group of people at the centers and we are extremely blessed. Thank you all for your hard work and my continued gratitude and respect to all at the centers who continue making AMPAC and NSTC a world class academic entity.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all from my family and me.

STAFF SPOTLIGHT DIANE MALDONADO,

the Administrative Assistant at the NanoScience Technology Center received recognition on August 17, 2010 for her 15 years of service at UCF. She began her career with UCF back in December 1994 at Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering. She was promoted within the department for eight years. In that time, she assisted the Graduate Coordinator, and worked with International Student Services. She also prepared folders for undergraduate students and processed travel. She then took on the Office Manager position at Rosen College of Hospitality Management where she processed payroll for the entire college, translated surveys, worked closely with HR in the hiring process and set up the new postal services center at the college. She was under the supervision of the Associwww.nanoscience.ucf.edu

ate Dean. While that was a tremendous experience at the gorgeous campus, she felt closer to home on the main campus so she came back to the Multicultural Academic Support Services office (one of the first year advising offices on campus) as Office Manager to work closely with students to help develop their careers. There she supervised and mentored student assistants, planned orientations along with the Director, projected budgets, served on the Staff Morale committee and the Student Success Inauguration committee, and prepared a slideshow for a community college visit. She also coordinated a web workshop on diversity training. Though the experience was unforgettable, Diane felt it was time to see where else she could serve at UCF and was offered a position with the NanoScience Technology Center as Administrative Assistant. She has now been with the Center for over three years and enjoys coming to work daily. Here she processes purchase orders, pays invoices, and works closely with Finance & Accounting and the Office of Research.

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STAFF SPOTLIGHT (continued from previous page) A MESSAGE FROM ERNIE GEMEINHART: Thanks again everyone for

the warm welcome! After a busy couple of first months, I feel fairly settled in. Each day still brings new knowledge and challenges which I enjoy tremendously.

For the newer individuals in our combined Center, I started as Lab Manager and Safety Officer in mid-July. Before my arrival here, I per-formed many of the same duties at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), College of Pharmacy, Biomedical Polymer Science Lab for about nine years. I loved that job, but always thought that it would be even better if I could 1) shorten my daily commute and 2) reduce the frost threat to less than a seven month span on the calendar. This position has fulfilled both of these wishes and has allowed me to continue doing what I enjoy. My commute from Aurora to downtown Chicago’s west loop area was almost two hours each way. Here in Orlando, my home and office share the same zip code, and my commute is a 15 minute leisurely bike ride with an occasional complimentary warm shower.

I do have some Florida in my blood: I spent my undergraduate years at Florida Tech in Melbourne studying marine biology and aquaculture. In those years, I developed a love for SCUBA diving and commonly spent two or three weekends a month in the Atlantic off of Florida’s southeast coast and Keys and in various freshwater caverns, springs, and lakes in the Melbourne, Crystal River, and Gainesville areas. From Florida, graduate studies took me to Washington, DC where I examined the physiology, taxonomy, and evolutionary biology of neotropical freshwater catfishes in the genus.

KIRK SCAMMON

Kirk is one of the staff engineers that maintain the AMPAC Materials Characterization Facility at UCF. He has worked at the MCF since 1998, and is primarily responsible for the Electron Spectroscopy and Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy instrumentation. With changes in staffing, he has also taken on responsibility for Scanning Electron Microscopy and X-Ray Diffraction as well as optical microscopy and sample preparation. He earned his BSME, and MSME at the University of Central Florida, and additional graduate work at the Pennsylvania State University. His background is in metallurgy and corrosion with emphasis on environmentally induced cracking phenomena. As an undergraduate, he worked on stress corrosion cracking of corrosion resistant material in high pH chloride environments. His masters project was on the hydrogen embrittlement susceptibility of nickel based superalloys. While at Penn State, he worked on development of corrosion resis-tant non equilibrium aluminum alloy produced by physical vapor deposition. Part of this work was done through a fellowship to Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. He then continued this work at PSU, including the construction of a dual e-gun deposition system.

While at the MCF, his primary responsibility has been the training of students in the proper operation of the instrumentation as well as assisting students with choosing appropriate analysis methods. He has taught short courses on Scanning Electron Microscopy and a smaller session on analysis of XPS data. He performs routine maintenance on all of the equipment under his responsibility and most of the major repair on those out of warranty. Other work at the MCF includes working with outside companies to solve their materials or process problems and also occasional failure analysis. In addition to his regular duties, he has been the PI on two external research projects, “Nano-Scale Particle Coatings for Service Life Extension of Small Arms Components” with Luna Inovations of Blacks-burg Virginia and “Evaluation of a New Large Area Rapid Full Field Astigmatic Imaging Spec-trometer” with ELP and Associates of Melborne, Florida.

ADVANCED MATERIALS PROCESSING AND ANALYSIS CENTER

NANOSCIENCE TECHNOLOGY CENTER

Engineering Building 1, Suite 381 Box 162455 4000 Central Florida Boulevard Orlando, Florida 32816 Phone: (407) 882-1455 Fax: (407) 882-1462 www.ampac.ucf.edu

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U N I V E R S I T Y

12424 Research Parkway Suite 400 Orlando, Florida 32826 Phone: (407) 882-1578 Fax: (407) 882-2819 www.nanoscience.ucf.edu

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C E N T R A L

F L O R I D A