Abstract

Lasers and optics are becoming important tools for scientific research and industrial applications. However, the diffraction limit of light has been a bottleneck for laser/light materials processing and imaging in a nanoscale. The goal of our laboratory is to investigate light-matter interactions at extremely short time and length scales and develop advanced micro/nano-systems for applications in biomedical engineering and the life sciences. In this talk, I will discuss my laboratory’s recent research efforts in nanophotonics that use plasmonic effects for nanoscale optical manipulation and nanomanufacturing. I will also present several on-going projects in using such advanced micro/nano-fabrication methods for the development of biomedical micro/nano-devices like 3-D scaffolds for tissue growth and advanced tool kits with nanoscale control of growth factors and topography for nerve regeneration.

About the Speaker

Dr. Chen is the Program Director for the Nanomanufacturing Program at the US National Science Foundation. He is on leave from The University of Texas at Austin where he is Henderson Centennial Endowed Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department. Dr. Chen received BE from the Thermal Engineering Department at Tsinghua University in 1989 and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1999. His current research interest includes nanophotonics, nanomanufacturing, biomaterials and nanomedicine, and energy nanotechnology.

Dr. Chen received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation in 2001, an Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers in 2002, and a Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research in 2004. He received AIAA Best Paper award in 2006. He is a committee member of the ASME Nanotechnology Institute and IEEE Nanotechnology Council. Dr. Chen is an Associate Editor of ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering and Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology. He is an editor of a book – “Nanomanufacturing” (American Scientific Publishers, 2008) and serves on the Editorial Board of Nanomedicine and The Open Materials Science Journal. He was as a Guest Editor in 2003 for IEEE Transactions on Advanced Packaging: Special Issue on NEMS/MEMS Packaging. Dr. Chen is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).