Center News

Congratulations to Dr. Ahyoung Kim, former member of our center, awarding the Inaugural Caltech-Kavli Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow!

Congratulations to Dr. Ahyoung Kim, former member of our center, awarding the Inaugural Caltech-Kavli Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow! Her research aims to develop nanomaterials as wireless acoustic nanorobots for applications in bioelectric medicine and neurotechnology. To realize this vision, Ahyoung integrates her interdisciplinary expertise in nanomaterials, bioengineering, and physical chemistry. Click here for the full story!

Continue Reading Congratulations to Dr. Ahyoung Kim, former member of our center, awarding the Inaugural Caltech-Kavli Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow!

Dr. Samuel Chigome presented the collaboration with COMPASS as a powerful engine for advancement of entrepreneurship in advanced materials and technologies

Dr. Samuel Chigome presented the collaboration with COMPASS as an powerful engine for advancement of entrepreneurship in advanced materials and technologies at the African entrepreneurial Universities conference in Nyeri, Kenya.  

Continue Reading Dr. Samuel Chigome presented the collaboration with COMPASS as a powerful engine for advancement of entrepreneurship in advanced materials and technologies

KotovLab kicking-off the ‘Complex Particle Design and Applications’ session of the 2024 UMich Chemical Engineering Graduate Symposium!

A team of Prof. Kotov had a lot of fun kicking off the ‘Complex Particle Design and Applications’ session of the 2024 UMich Chemical Engineering Graduate Symposium, discussing the work in Kotov Lab to quantify the structural complexity of network materials using a graph theoretical approach!

Continue Reading KotovLab kicking-off the ‘Complex Particle Design and Applications’ session of the 2024 UMich Chemical Engineering Graduate Symposium!

Professors Lahann and Pena-Francesch Develop Squid-Inspired Screen That Displays Images Without Electronics!

The team of Prof. Lahann and Prof. Pena-Francesch have developed a flexible screen inspired by squids that can store and display encrypted images using magnetic fields instead of electronics. This innovative device allows images to be revealed publicly with a standard magnet or kept private using a complex magnetic array that acts as an encryption…

Continue Reading Professors Lahann and Pena-Francesch Develop Squid-Inspired Screen That Displays Images Without Electronics!

Assistant Professor Prashant Kumar – Honouree of the MIT Technology Review TR35 Asia-Pacific 2024 Award

Assistant Professor Prashant Kumar, a part of COMPASS last year, has been recognized as a winner of the MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 (TR35) Asia-Pacific 2024 award. This prestigious honour celebrates the top 35 innovators under age 35 making a significant impact in their fields within the Asia Pacific region. Assistant Professor Prashant Kumar has been…

Continue Reading Assistant Professor Prashant Kumar – Honouree of the MIT Technology Review TR35 Asia-Pacific 2024 Award

Falon Kalutantirige has been recognized in 2024 Beckman Institute Research Image Contest!

Polymer filtration films are used in water purification to separate impurities from drinking water. My research investigates how the films’ irregular architecture (i.e., structure and thickness) affects how well they work. Here, 3D renderings of polymer films resemble land surfaces and star constellations. I used a 3D thickness map to illustrate a hot, mountainous planet…

Continue Reading Falon Kalutantirige has been recognized in 2024 Beckman Institute Research Image Contest!

Congratulations to Prof. Sharon Glotzer for the FOMMS Medal!

The Foundations of Molecular Modeling & Simulation Conference recently awarded Prof. Sharon Glotzer the FOMMS Medal for her fundamental contributions to the development of computational methods for particle assembly. The FOMMS Medal is presented triannually to leaders in the field whose research has made a profound and lasting impact. Here at COMPASS, we greatly benefit from her extensive knowledge…

Continue Reading Congratulations to Prof. Sharon Glotzer for the FOMMS Medal!

Sumeyra has been selected to receive the 2024 BI Research Community Innovator Award!

Congratulations! E. Sumeyra Turali-Emre is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Kotov Lab, Chemical Engineering. Her research focuses on engineering nanoparticles for biomedical applications, including antibacterial activity and capturing extracellular vesicles for disease biomarkers. In addition to her research commitments, she is deeply committed to advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. She…

Continue Reading Sumeyra has been selected to receive the 2024 BI Research Community Innovator Award!

News from our awardees

Nanostructured materials for multispectral optics in extreme conditions A team of scientists from the University of Michigan, Air Force Research Laboratory, and University of Sao Carlos in Brazil has shown how to create tough and strong nanocomposites with record-high polarization rotation that operate at temperatures exceeding 250º C.

Continue Reading News from our awardees

NSF COMPASS site visit student poster awards

Congratulations on receiving the best poster award during the NSF site visit! 5 poster awards out of 33 presenters are given to   Alain Kadar (University of Michigan) Anastasia Visheratina (University of Michigan) Dhanush Udayashankara Jamadgni (North Carolina State University) Falon C Kalutantirige (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) Yuefeng Jin (University of Michigan) Award Judges: Debra Rolison (U.S.…

Continue Reading NSF COMPASS site visit student poster awards

Dickson attended the annual meeting of the VIP Consortium

Dickson attended the annual meeting of the VIP Consortium (https://vip.gatech.edu/vip-vertically-integrated-projects-program). Strathmore University just signed an MoU to join the consortium this year, so he had the pleasure of representing his university in this meeting. VIP consortium drives a model that allows undergraduate and graduate students to engage in experiential projects led by faculty of their…

Continue Reading Dickson attended the annual meeting of the VIP Consortium

The inaugural Class on Complex Particles and Particle Systems is finished! (by Riley Garlauskas) 

After taking the Complex Particle Class (CHE 496/696 ME595 Particles and Particles Systems) last semester, Riley Garlauskas, one of the students who took the class, expressed his excitement of using VR with complex particles! Below is his full story. Having witnessed how students interacted with the VR lab, I found that there was an overwhelmingly…

Continue Reading The inaugural Class on Complex Particles and Particle Systems is finished! (by Riley Garlauskas) 

1st COMPASS-Seagate Industry Grand Challenge

1st Place Winners:  Dr Duke Oeba, Namumbya Mercy Diana, Lucy Mahulu, and Dereje Gelanu 2nd Place Winners: Daisy Kiptoo and Francis Walugembe We recently hosted a COMPASS-Seagate Industry Grand Challenge for students, professors, and researchers from African universities and research centers. We had a week of skill-building webinars and posted a hack-a-thon style industry challenge for participants…

Continue Reading 1st COMPASS-Seagate Industry Grand Challenge

Nothing is everything: How hidden emptiness can define the usefulness of filtration materials

Prof. Qian Chen, right, and chemistry graduate student Falon Kalutantirige worked with multiple technologies, including Transmission and Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy at the Materials Research Laboratory’s Supercon facility to image nanovoids within filter membranes in three dimensions. The team has titled the nanovoid advancement “Beyond Nothingness,” where they applied a mathematical concept called graph theory…

Continue Reading Nothing is everything: How hidden emptiness can define the usefulness of filtration materials

Albert Liu visited North Carolina State University! Amazing talk with great discussions

Prof. Albert Liu visited North Carolina State University and gave an amazing talk about “Colloidal Electronic Matter.” “I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity of visiting the North Carolina State University thanks to the network COMPASS has built. The MSE department at NCSU is truly phenomenal and their Center for Additive Manufacturing and Logistics (CAMAL) is…

Continue Reading Albert Liu visited North Carolina State University! Amazing talk with great discussions

COMPASS Kick-off Meeting

On December 1, 2023, COMPASS invited the full team including all students to a kick-off meeting at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. We were able to start our day off with brief congratulatory comments by Paul Lane, NSF Program Manager. Nick Kotov, COMPASS Director, presented the COMPASS vision followed by a day of…

Continue Reading COMPASS Kick-off Meeting

Prof. Eranda Nikolla received Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos Award!

Professor Eranda Nikolla, University of Michigan, Chemical Engineering, received the inaugural Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos Award for Creativity in Catalysis from Tufts University. This is a newly established award in honor of Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos’ legacy in catalysis science, and Eranda was chosen as its very first recipient. The award was presented to Eranda by Greg Stephanopoulos.

Continue Reading Prof. Eranda Nikolla received Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos Award!

Largest U.S. investment in particle self-assembly seeks to deliver on nanotechnology’s promise

With applications in transportation, energy, health care and more, the center includes African universities and creates opportunities for overlooked talent in the U.S. Covered on Michigan Engineering News, COMPASS U-M Press Release, NSF announces $120 million in funding to create 4 new Science and Technology Centers, Dingell Announces More Than $23 Million for Science and…

Continue Reading Largest U.S. investment in particle self-assembly seeks to deliver on nanotechnology’s promise

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. 2243104.

Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.