Events Calendar

Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Seminar - Distinguished Lecture Series

Speaker: Dr. Vivian Ferry, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota

Talk Title: Optical nanomaterials: chirality, refractive index, and applications to solar energy conversion

Abstract: Optical nanomaterials offer the ability to bend, twist, guide, and confine light in nanoscale dimensions, leading to new applications in photovoltaics, sensing, light emission control, and other optoelectronic devices. The first part of this talk will discuss strategies for capturing and managing incident sunlight effectively for solar energy conversion. I will discuss complementary strategies for managing incident sunlight before it interacts with the solar panel, including luminescent solar concentrators that down shift and concentrate sunlight using a combination of luminescent nanocrystals and nanostructured surfaces, and structures that integrate with photovoltaic modules for thermal management. The second part of the talk will discuss the development of chiral nanomaterials that interact selectively with right and left handed circularly polarized light. I will discuss strategies to tune the chiral optical response of both semiconductor nanocrystals and metamaterials.

Biography: Vivian Ferry is an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. She received her S. B. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago in 2006, and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 2011, working with Prof. Harry Atwater. She was a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Paul Alivisatos in the Materials Science Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 2011 to 2014. Her research focuses on light matter interactions in nanoscale materials, and her specific research interests include light management in solar energy conversion, switchable metamaterials, and nanoscale chirality. She is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award, an Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award, was named as one of Technology Reviews 35 Innovators under 35 in 2016, and holds a McKnight Land Grant Professorship at the University of Minnesota.

Host: Professor Malancha Gupta

Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 200

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Karen Woo/Mork Family