Professor Wei Lu, David Salac Receive Caddell Faculty/Student Achievement Award
Salac, D., Lu, W., Wang, C.W., and Sastry, A.M.,
Pattern formation in a polymer thin film induced by an in-plane electric field. Applied Physics Letters, 2004. *85*(7): p. 1161-1163.
This year's Robert M. Caddell Memorial Faculty/Student Achievement Award will be presented later this fall to Professor Wei Lu and doctoral candidate David Salac. The honor recognizes Salac and his advisor Professor Lu's research in materials science.
The primary focus of the research deals with designing external fields, such as electric fields, which can control the self-assembly of structures at the nanometer level. "I am particularly interested in creating nanoscale applications without the need for expensive cleanrooms," said Salac, "and that is why I chose to work with Professor Lu. I felt very honored and privileged to be nominated, and I feel proud that the work we are doing is having an impact on the research community."
"We were very pleased and honored to learn that we were nominated and selected for this prestigious award," said Professor Lu. "It recognizes our contribution to the fundamental understanding of nanoscale self-assembly mechanism and its application for nanofabrication in various materials systems.
"Advancing technologies demand solid structures of ever-decreasing length scales. A critical challenge is to mass produce the desired structures economically. Self-assembly is a promising low cost and high throughput solution. The advancement of nanofabrication technology calls for the exploration of innovative methods to control a self-assembly process and the development of advanced simulation and design tools. Our theoretical and computational studies, as well as experimental work, advance the fundamental understanding of the self-assembly mechanism due to surface stress, electric dipoles and electric field-induced surface instability.
"For instance, we demonstrated that a thin polymer film subjected to an electrostatic field may lose stability at the polymer-air interface, leading to uniform self-organized pillars emerging out of the film surface. We developed three dimensional models to account for this intriguing behavior, allowing fabrication of various structures through designed electric field. A recent work we published in Physical Review Letter establishes the scientific basis of using molecular dipoles to pattern multilayer of molecules. The study reveals self-alignment, scaling down of size, and effect of guided self-assembly with embedded electrodes. We also extended the mechanism to the concept of molecular vehicles to allow designed mass transport or deliver specific molecules for nano-lubrication."
Salac, D., Lu, W., Wang, C.W., and Sastry, A.M.,
Pattern formation in a polymer thin film induced by an in-plane electric field. Applied Physics Letters, 2004. *85*(7): p. 1161-1163.
Salac, who was born Prague and moved to Grand Haven, Michigan as a child, earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University in 2002 and an MS in ME at the University of Michigan in 2003. In addition to the ME PhD program, he is also currently working toward a Masters degree in Mathematics. Salac was drawn to ME at the CoE by the department's excellent record of research and academics, although he noted, "The Michigan football and hockey teams didn't hurt either."
The Caddell honor was not the first for Salac or Professor Lu. Salac's work has been presented at several conferences and has appeared in several journals. He was recently named a Pan-American Advanced Studies Institute Fellow and received an NSF DMII travel fellowship. Professor Lu's awards include being named an Air Force summer faculty fellow, the Robert J. McGrattan Award by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the National Science Foundation Career Award.
Salac, currently a Graduate Student Research Assistant, sees his future goals centering around continuing his research of self-assembly of materials at a major research university. He has also had a taste of teaching and would like to continue in that field, as well. "I very much enjoy the research that I am doing but I would also like to teach tomorrow's engineers and scientists."
Professor Lu received his PhD from the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, Princeton University, and joined the ME faculty in 2001. He also received PhD, MS and BS degrees from Tsinghua University, China. Prof. Lu has over 35 peer-reviewed journal
publications. He also has abundant publications in national and international conferences, encyclopedia and book chapters. His research interests include nanoscale self assembly, nanostructure evolution, and mechanical properties of nanostructures.
