51ÎÛÂþ

At the 2026 Fall Staff Assembly, Vanderbilt University recognized Sarah Ross, Senior Program Manager at the Vanderbilt Institute of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (VINSE) and the Interdisciplinary Materials Science Graduate Program, with the Student Impact Award. Sarah was honored for mentoring, advocating for,… Read More

In the second installment of a multipart series, alumni of the Chancellor Faculty Fellows program were interviewed about the research centers they run and to explain the impact of this university support. Sharon Weiss, VINSE Director, reflected on how being named to the inaugural cohort of… Read More

(l) Cr/glass mask for the creation of flexible neural probes (r) Direct write of patterns using 375 nm laser vector writing mode VINSE is excited to announce that the Heidelberg μMLA Maskless Aligner is available to users in the cleanroom. This new direct-write photolithography tool has a faster write speed… Read More

Daniel Chavarria, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Researcher, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Lippmann Research Group  Growing up with a father who was a mechanical engineer and an aunt who was a physician, I was drawn early to bioengineering to apply engineering solutions to biomedical problems. My focus on Alzheimer’s disease… Read More

How do detectives turn crime-scene evidence into useful clues? On Thursday, October 29th, VINSE welcomed students from Centennial High School to our Forensics Lab to find out. Students explored how scientists use light to learn about the composition and properties of different materials. Using Raman, FTIR, absorption, and photoluminescence spectroscopy,… Read More

Congratulations to Jason Valentine, VINSE Deputy Director and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, who has been elected to the 2027 Fellow Class of the Optica Society. The society honors Jason for pioneering contributions to low-loss dielectric metasurfaces and meta-optics for image processing, and for sustained education in nanophotonics. The society’s board… Read More

Dr. Yang Han joined VINSE in fall 2026 as a new faculty member in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Vanderbilt University. His research focuses on developing advanced membrane materials for chemical separations, with an emphasis on understanding how molecules and ions move through materials at the nanoscale. Read More

Dr. Ruogu Fang joined VINSE in fall 2026 as a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and the Flowers Family Endowed Dean’s Faculty Fellow at Vanderbilt University. Her research brings together artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and biomedical imaging to advance precision brain health and develop AI systems inspired by the brain. Dr. Fang… Read More

VINSE welcomed Dr. Soumya Srivastava in fall 2026 as an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. She joins Vanderbilt from West Virginia University, where she was a tenured Associate Professor. Her research combines microfluidics, electrokinetics, and machine learning to build label free platforms that… Read More

Dr. Shekhar Bhansali joined VINSE in fall 2026, bringing extensive experience in nanotechnology, microfluidics, and sensor development. He joined Vanderbilt University in 2025 51ÎÛÂþ as the Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He also holds an appointment in the… Read More