Undergraduate research opportunities may be available with the following faculty:
Deji Akinwande
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
https://sites.utexas.edu/nano/
We are conducting basic and applied research at the frontier of nanomaterials, memory device and applications, flexible nanoelectronics, bioelectronics, RF integrated circuits, and electromagnetics. Our passion lies in the discovery, understanding, and application of new paradigms to enable novel ubiquitous systems that can address societal needs.
Jose Alvarado
Chemical Engineering & Biomedical Engineering
José is interested in the interplay between the “hardware” and “software” of biology. His lab addresses this interplay experimentally by building physical model systems in the lab. José received his MSc in Physics from the Universität Leipzig, Germany; and his PhD in Physics from AMOLF and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands. He went on to do a postdoc in Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is now Assistant Professor in Physics at the University of Texas at Austin.
Brian Belardi
Mcketta Department of Chemical Engineering
https://www.belardi.che.utexas.edu/
Our lab seeks to probe, perturb, and re-program biological barriers across length scales. Metazoans - which include humans - have evolved to assemble exquisite semi-permeable membrane structures that regulate the flux of select material in and between cells and tissues. The complex, multi-component topologies and mesh-like architectures of biological barriers are rich sources of biological information and often deteriorate in pathological conditions. With molecular tools in hand, we study epithelial cells and tissue, extracellular matrix, and cell membrane interfaces to gain a quantitative and mechanistic understanding of these barriers. Leveraging our fundamental insights, researchers in the lab build smarter molecules, materials, and cells for improving drug bioavailability in the gut and brain, detecting and repairing cancerous tissue, and for regenerative medicine applications.
Eric Anslyn
Department of Chemistry
https://anslyn.cm.utexas.edu/AnslynWebsite/index.html
Broadly speaking, his group focuses on physical organic and supramolecular chemistry. Using mechanistic insights and knowledge of photophysics, they devise sensing systems for real-life applications. They create rapid screening assays for enantiomeric excess, diastereomeric excess, and reaction yield, as a means of facilitating reaction discovery in catalytic asymmetric induction. In addition, their analytical efforts involve the area of differential sensing, where an array of cross-reactive sensors are used to create patterns that are diagnostic of individual analytes or the consistency of complex mixtures. Very recently, his group has delved into the area of reversible covalent bonding, creating a suite of reactions that can all occur simultaneously in the same solution with no crossover between them. This is the primary topic for which his group contributes to the MRSEC. They are exploiting these reactions for material applications, polymer synthesis, complex assembly formation, and self-replicating oligomers.
Keith Keitz
McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering
Dr. Keith Keitz is a Texas ChE assistant professor and alumnus of the department (B.S. ’07). His research focuses on the interface of synthetic chemistry and synthetic biology with the aim of using synthetic constructs to control biological processes involved in neurodegeneration, gene regulation and biological materials synthesis.
Xiaoqin (Elaine) Li
Department of Physics
https://sites.cns.utexas.edu/liopticsut
The Li group investigates light-matter interaction on the nanoscale. We use various laser spectroscopy to study fundamental excitations in solids such as excitons, phonons, plasmons, and magnons. We are particularly interested in novel materials with exotic quantum properties, photonic and spintronic materials with unique properties. Undergraduate students often assist in our projects via preparing samples, designing mechanical components, and performing various characterization measurements such as photoluminescence and Raman scattering.
Delia Milliron
McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering
https://nanocrystal.che.utexas.edu/
Our research synthesizes the fundamental chemistry of colloidal nanocrystals, the development of methods for their integration into novel nanomaterials and the systematic investigation of their properties and applications. We are a collaborative team of chemists, materials scientists, and engineers motivated by the challenges of next-generation electronic devices and energy technologies.
Sean Roberts
Department of Chemistry
https://www.robertsgrouput.org/
The Roberts group develops new optical techniques to investigate energy transfer, charge transport, and spin dynamics in molecular materials. Current projects include design of hybrid organic:inorganic structures for shifting light's frequency spectrum, development of new optical microscopy methods for tracking excited species in nanoscale domains and at interfaces, and examining materials that allow for strong coupling of molecules to light.
Adrianne Rosales
McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering
https://www.arosalesgroup.com/
We study and develop dynamic polymer systems to engineer complex biological microenvironments. In processes such as disease or tissue development, there is an active interplay between cells, the extracellular matrix, and precise chemical and physical signals that change over time. Engineered materials that capture these dynamic properties can shed insight to biological mechanisms and address problems in human health. Using principles from chemical engineering, materials science, and biology, we pursue the following research goals:
- Fundamental understanding of polymer structure-property relationships, especially biomimetic and stimuli-responsive polymers
- Development of synthetic hydrogels that actively probe cell-matrix interactions
- Engineering new material platforms for disease models
Jeanne Stachowiak
Chemical Engineering & Biomedical Engineering
https://www.stachowiaklab.org/
Our vision is to reverse engineer lipid membrane function as a route to understanding cellular physiology and constructing clinically translatable materials and systems. The health of cells and tissues relies on communication of biochemical instructions across membrane interfaces. Through quantitative molecular-scale measurements and the design of biomimetic materials, research in our laboratory aims to understand the physical basis of cellular membrane organization and develop novel therapeutic systems.
Tom Truskett
McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering
We study how interfaces and confinement impact the properties of molecular liquids and crystals, colloidal and nanoparticle suspensions, protein solutions, and glassy solids. Our recent work focuses on three fundamental areas—self-assembly at the nanoscale, dynamics of confined liquids, and structural arrest of complex fluids—that are important for applications ranging from biomedical imaging to the delivery of therapeutic proteins.
Wennie Wang
McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering
https://wangmaterialsgroup.com/
Our group utilizes and deploys computational methods to engineer the electronic, transport, and optical properties of materials in energy sustainability technologies. Enabled by high-performance computing (HPC), we seek to elucidate and predict the materials properties at the microscopic level using first-principles calculations, drive the exploration of novel materials platforms, and create strategies that directly couple to/guide experiments. In particular, we look to understand and harness defects in materials for electronic and optical devices. Research in the group is highly interdisciplinary and draws upon fields such as chemical engineering, materials science, and solid-state physics.
Current research is focused on applications in catalysis, energy conversion, and next-generation computing applications.
Throughout our research and teaching efforts, we strive to create and foster a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment.
Edward Yu
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Our laboratory conducts research on topics in semiconductor materials and devices, and in nanoscience and nanotechnology generally. Undergraduates in our laboratory work on a variety of projects in these areas, with project specifics depending on current research interests and activities in the lab. Representative recent projects have included development and implementation of nanoscale patterning technologies for light management in solar cells and related applications; optical characterization of two-dimensional materials; and scanned probe microscopy of nanoscale electromechanical material behavior. Typically, undergraduate researchers in our laboratory work under the direction of a graduate student mentor on a project related to that graduate student's PhD thesis research, participate in weekly research group meetings, and (individually) meet weekly with Professor Yu. Laboratory research and meetings are generally conducted at the Microelectronics Research Center (UT Pickle Research Campus).