Program

August 2

Dr. Laura C Zanetti-Domingues
(CLF Octopus)

Title: (Cryo-)vEM and (cryo-)CLEM at the CLF Octopus facility

Abstract: Cryogenic ultrastructural imaging techniques such as cryo-electron tomography have produced a revolution in how the structure of biological systems is investigated by enabling the determination of structures of protein complexes immersed in a complex biological matrix within vitrified cell and model organisms. However, this is mostly true of very abundant proteins which reliably form a single type of complex and does not account for the wider cellular context. To understand biological processes related to health, disease or environmental processes, cryo-ET must be complemented by a suite of complementary techniques and correlative workflows that help paint a more complete picture and to pinpoint rare events for more detailed studies that capture biological heterogeneity.

The CLF Octopus facility has developed two super-resolution cryogenic fluorescence techniques, superSIL-STORM and astigmatism-based 3D STORM, and we are working towards high-resolution correlation with FIB-SEM nanomachining to produce detailed maps of cellular and protein ultrastructure. In parallel, we have also developed a portfolio of techniques that enable us to collect serial EM data on larger volumes of samples to understand the spatial relationships between the various components of biological or biocomposite samples. This presentation showcases their application to a selection of scientific questions and discusses their advantages and limitations and their future applicability to other biological questions and technological advancements.

Bio: Dr. Demircan Yalcin received her, B.Sc., MSc, PhD in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey in 2010, 2013 and 2018, respectively and she also has a Minor Degree in Biology from the same university. She received her Ph.D. on the topic: A Lab-on-a-chip System Integrating Dielectrophoretic Detection and Impedance Counting Units for Chemotherapy Guidance in Leukemia by pursuing her enthusiasm for creating tools for early diagnosis and prognosis of fatal diseases. During her 14 years’ hands-on laboratory experience, she studied various fields of biosensors and microsystems technology such as lab-on-a-chip systems for blood and cancer cell applications and MEMS-based dielectrophoretic cell separation systems for multidrug resistance studies of cancer cells. Between 2015 and 2019, she was involved at Mikro Biyosistemler, Ankara, Turkey as an R&D Engineer. She had a crucial role in the foundation and development of first prototypes. Then, she worked as a Postdoctoral researcher in the Neuro-Nanoscale Engineering group of Prof. Regina Luttge by making design, set up, and perform experiments in the laboratory to mimic and analyze neurodegenerative diseases on biosensor. Finally, she worked in a start-up company, InnoFluidics, as a senior scientist between 2022-2024 by developing a state-of-the art spectroscopy product.

July 5

Yagmur Demircan Yalcin
(Eindhoven University of Technology, Mechanical Engineering Department)

Title: A journey of a scientist in pursuit of curiosity

Bio: Dr. Demircan Yalcin received her, B.Sc., MSc, PhD in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey in 2010, 2013 and 2018, respectively and she also has a Minor Degree in Biology from the same university. She received her Ph.D. on the topic: A Lab-on-a-chip System Integrating Dielectrophoretic Detection and Impedance Counting Units for Chemotherapy Guidance in Leukemia by pursuing her enthusiasm for creating tools for early diagnosis and prognosis of fatal diseases. During her 14 years’ hands-on laboratory experience, she studied various fields of biosensors and microsystems technology such as lab-on-a-chip systems for blood and cancer cell applications and MEMS-based dielectrophoretic cell separation systems for multidrug resistance studies of cancer cells. Between 2015 and 2019, she was involved at Mikro Biyosistemler, Ankara, Turkey as an R&D Engineer. She had a crucial role in the foundation and development of first prototypes. Then, she worked as a Postdoctoral researcher in the Neuro-Nanoscale Engineering group of Prof. Regina Luttge by making design, set up, and perform experiments in the laboratory to mimic and analyze neurodegenerative diseases on biosensor. Finally, she worked in a start-up company, InnoFluidics, as a senior scientist between 2022-2024 by developing a state-of-the art spectroscopy product.

May 3

Eva de Leo (Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center)

Title: Nanotechnology through my lens
Bio: Eva De Leo is Manager of the Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center (BRNC), a state-​of-the-art research facility, operated jointly by IBM Research Zurich and ETH Zurich. The nanocenter provides cutting-edge technology and know-​how for advancing nanosciences. Eva has a broad background in the design, fabrication and characterization of devices on the micro- and nano-scale. After her studies in Electronic Engineering, that she pursued while working as technical manager for an IT company, she dived deeper into nanoscience and cleanrooms during her Master’s degree in Micro and Nanotechnologies for Integrated Systems in Politecnico di Torino, INP Grenoble and EPFL, with research projects also at Philips Research Eindhoven and MIT. She received a PhD degree from the Optical Materials Engineering Laboratory of ETH Zurich in 2018 for her work on nanostructured surfaces and fluorescent emitters. Afterwards, she worked as R&D manager for the startup Polariton Technologies on electro-optic devices.

April 5

Luisa Bozano (Applied Materials)
Title: Electrons, Materials and all the beautiful interactions
Bio: Luisa has explored and invented in nanofabrication materials and methods for nearly 25 years. Her interests at the interface of physics, material science and chemistry led her to pursue advanced studies at UC Santa Cruz after receiving her Laurea degree in Physics from the University of Genoa in her native Italy. While receiving her doctorate, she joined IBM Almaden Research. Her work at IBM ranged from the application of metal oxides and polymers to sensors and electronics, to development of resist materials and e-beam methods for improved optical mask lithography. Her leadership in these spaces yielded over 30 issued patents, and as impressively, successful transfer and commercialization of patterning materials to external collaborators. Luisa now leads Applied Materials' interests in advanced patterning, from e-beam to packaging, as Director of Patterning Engineering.

March 1

Guest chair - Afshan Begum, Quantum Photonics Group, National Institute for Materials Science, Japan
Title: Junior researcher event

Fatemeh Kalantari, M.Sc, Nano-electronics, RA, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Ira

Improved sensing characteristics using Graphene Quantum Dots

Mahdieh Shojaei Baghini, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Early-Stage Researcher, University of Glasgow, Scotland
Microfabricated resonators for the UHF band
Aakanksha Sud, JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow, Tohoku University, Japan
Nonlinear coupling mediated by multi-magnon interactions in synthetic antiferromagnetic thin films
Plus, gain valuable career-building insights from Ann-Katrin U. Michel, Cluster Lead at Sensirion, Switzerland.

February 2

Loes Segerink (University of Twente)
Title: The smaller, the better? Use of microfluidic devices for healthcare applications
Abstract: During my PhD project at the University of Twente (prof. van den Berg), I developed a point-of-care semen analyser system that measured the concentration and motility of spermatozoa in human semen. After 4 years, I successfully defended my work and its impact has been recognized by the Simon Stevin Leerling award (2011), Simon Stevin Gezel award (2012), and enormous media exposure. After obtaining my PhD, I started as a postdoc in the same group and co-founded the spinoff Cellanyzer B.V. for which I received the STW Valorisation grant phase 1 and 2 (2012) In 2013, I worked for several months in the group of prof. dr. Helene Andersson Svahn (KTH, Sweden) on the use of paper microarrays for rapid biomarker detection in serum. In that same year, I received my Veni grant to develop new techniques to assess and select spermatozoa for assisted reproductive technologies. In October 2014 I became an assistant professor (tenure track) at the University of Twente, followed by associate professor in October 2017, adjunct professor in May 2019 and full professor in July 2021.

January 5

Giulia Tagliabue (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne)
Title: Unraveling Hot Carrier Transfer Processes in Plasmonic Energy Devices
View Abstract & Bio

December 1

Leia Giorgiou (SRI International)
Title: Nanofabrication Coast-to-Coast 
Bio: Vasileia Georgiou is a Process Integration Engineer in Microcircuit Emulation Center (MEC), SRI International. She received her BA and M.Eng. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from National Technical University of Athens, Greece, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from George Mason University. Her Ph.D. research as well as her post-doctoral work was performed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. She then joined the Non-volatile Memory Research Lab in Western Digital where she worked mainly on developing nanoelectronic devices for bio-molecular identification. At her current position at SRI she is the Integration Engineer responsible for the deliverable products.

November 3

Guest chair - Jana Chaaban (Heidelberg)
Title: Junior researcher event
Bio: Dr. Jana Chaaban holds a Bachelor's in Physics from McGill University and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the ETH Zürich. In her doctoral research, she focused on high-resolution electrohydrodynamic nanodrip printing and its scalability via the microfabrication of a chip-based multi-nozzle printhead. Her research activities took her to internships and project work at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, IBM Research in Zürich, ABB, and since 2021 Heidelberg Instruments Nano. At Heidelberg Instruments, Jana is a Senior Applications Engineer in the Process and Applications Laboratory in Zürich, Switzerland. In this capacity, she leads process development and application demonstrations with the NanoFrazor systems. She periodically mentors students, interns, and co-workers in and outside of the lab.

Wendy Chen (PhD student, University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory)
Title: Using block-copolymer nanolithography to produce ultrathin SiNx isoporous membranes
Bio: Wen received her bachelor’s degree in Polymer Science and Engineering from Zhejiang University in China. She is currently pursuing a PhD under the direction of Prof. Paul Nealey and Prof. Seth Darling in Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering in the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory. She works on fabricating isoporous membranes that allow to study solute and charged species transport behavior in aqueous system using Directed self-assembly of block copolymer and other relevant nanofabrication techniques

Tina M. Hayward (PhD student, University of Utah)
Title: Device fabrication for optical lever measurement of torsional motion
Bio: Tina M. Hayward graduated from the University of Utah with a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering, and is currently pursuing her PhD in Electrical Engineering. She joined Menon Group in Fall, 2021, and is currently working to experimentally demonstrate a very long-range non-diffraction beam, as well as build a lightweight infra-red imaging system. In her free time, Tina enjoys playing music, reading, and working on stage lighting.

Chloé Bureau-Oxton (postdoc researcher at IBM Research Europe - Zürich)
Title: A Si-MOS fin-FET as an on-tip scanning electrometer
Bio: Dr. Bureau-Oxton received her PhD from the Université de Sherbrooke (QC, Canada) in 2021. She conducted her doctoral research at Sandia National Laboratories (NM, USA) where she worked on coherent control of spin-orbit-driven singlet-triplet qubits in Si-MOS devices. In particular, she focused on measuring the fidelity of these qubits using gate set tomography. Prior to her PhD, during her Master's degree at the Université de Sherbrooke, Dr. Bureau-Oxton worked on the fabrication and measurement of gate-defined GaAs/AlGaAs double quantum dots with cobalt nanomagnets. She is currently a postdoc researcher at IBM Research Europe - Zürich. Her work focuses on integrating semiconductor quantum dots onto the tip of an atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilever in order to achieve high-resolution electric field sensing.

Xia Liu (Professor in Beijing Institute of Technology, China)
Title: Multiple and Gray-Scale Thermal Scanning Probe Lithography
Bio: Xia Liu received her Ph.D. in Institute of Microelectronics at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2017. From September 2012 to October 2013, she was a visiting student in University of California at Berkeley. From August 2017 to October 2018, Dr. Liu was entitled as a Wen H. Ko Fellow at Case Western Reverse University, USA. From year 2018 to 2023, she was a researcher scientist in Microsystems laboratory, EPFL. Currently, she is a professor in Beijing Institute of Technology and an adjunct professor in CAS. She has demonstrated outstanding effort to research and explorations in micro/nanoscale devices and integrated systems, both at the frontiers of fundamental device physics and toward cutting-edge micro/nanotechnologies for emerging applications. She has authored or co-authored more than 40 peer-reviewed papers. Her doctoral dissertation is titled “Cardiomyocyte-Driven Energy Harvester and Ultrahigh Piezoelectric Nanofibers”, which is awarded with “Tsinghua University Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award, First Prize” in 2017. Her current research interest is focused on advanced manufacturing of 2D semiconductor nanostructures, electronic nanodevices and sensing applications.

October 6

Teri Odom 

Follow the Nano-brick Road

September 1

Kirsten Moselund (PSI)
A career in semiconductors - electrons, photons and qubits

August 4

Marianna Sledzinska (Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Spain)
Title Fabrication techniques for phonon engineering in low dimensional materials
Abstract: The central concept in phononics is the tuning of the phonon dispersion relation, also called phonon engineering, which provides a means of controlling related properties such as group velocity or phonon interactions. In this talk I will revise experimental achievements in the fabrication and application of 2D phononic crystals enabling the modification of the phonon dispersion relation of surface and membrane modes for the control of elastic waves/phonons propagation. These artificial materials offer the potential of modifying and controlling the heat flow to enable new schemes in thermal management.

July 7

Joint WIN+WAVES meeting
Networking event with an informal discussion “Enhancing professional visibility by networking via networks”

May 5

Elena Pinilla-Cienfuegos (Centro de Tecnología Nanofotónica de Valencia, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia)
Accurate & Reproducible Method for Single Nanoparticle Positioning on Nanostructures

April 7

Guest Chair: Natalya Kublik (Arizona State University)
Young Investigators

Beihang Yu (Postdoc at the Berkeley Lab, working with Dr. Ricardo Ruiz and Dr. Ron Zuckermann)
Bioinspired, sequence-defined polymer brushes as patternable surface modification monolayers for semiconductor/bio interfaces
Petrovic Jelena (PhD in microtechnology and currently a Scientist Postdoc ETH Zurich and Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland with Lucia Romano)​
Microstructured fiber-based probes for application in optogenetics
Adan Azem (University of British Columbia, Canada)​
Infrared waveguide integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (work in progress)

Jan. 6

Leeya Engel (Assistant Professor, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology)
There is no single track to the tenure track: my experience from PhD and Postdoc to Assistant Prof.

Bio: Leeya Engel is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Her research interests lie at the interface of microfabrication and biology (bio-MEMS). Leeya received her B.Sc. in physics from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel in 2008 and her Ph.D. in materials engineering and nanotechnologies in 2016 from Tel Aviv University, Israel. Leeya’s doctoral work focused on developing electroactive polymer micro-actuators and was recognized by several research awards including the AVS Nellie Yeoh Whetten Award. Leeya completed her postdoctoral studies at Stanford University in 2022. At Stanford, Leeya developed new bio-MEMS and pioneered the use of micropatterning for cryo-EM of cells. Her lab continues to engineer the cell microenvironment to understand how life works at the nanoscale.

Dec. 2

Carla Perez Martinez (UCL)

Using rockets in nanomanufacturing

Abstract: The ionic liquid ion source (ILIS) was originally proposed as a device for space propulsion. In an ILIS, a beam of ions is produced from an ionic liquid, or room temperature molten salt, by using electric fields. In this talk, I give an overview of the application of ILIS in space thrusters and motivate the use of ILIS to treat materials. The many chemistries made available by ionic liquids could be of advantage for material etching, in focused ion beams, and for material deposition.

Bio: Carla Perez Martinez is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the London Centre for Nanotechnology at University College London. Carla obtained her BS, MS and PhD degrees from MIT in 2011, 2013 and 2016, respectively. For her undergraduate and graduate research, Carla worked with Prof Paulo Lozano in the MIT Space Propulsion Lab, developing ionic liquid ion sources. After her PhD, she moved to the UK to take up a postdoctoral position in the group of Prof Susan Perkin in the Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Oxford, where she was also appointed Junior Research Fellow at Trinity College. At Oxford, Carla studied ionic liquids and electrolytes under nanoconfinement, in particular, the response of these substances when subjected to electric fields. In January 2020, Carla moved to the London Centre for Nanotechnology with funding from UKRI to set up her own group, to develop new nanomanufacturing technologies based on ionic liquid ion source.

Nov. 4

Updates from our young investigators

Afshan Begum, National Institute for Materials Science and University of Tsukuba (Japan) - Fabrication of large array photonic crystals to observe double Dirac-cones materialized by accidental degeneracy
Alba Arroyo-Fructuoso, University of Valencia (Spain) - Modulation of the Critical Current Induced by an Electric Field in Superconducting Nanowires Grown by He+ FIBID
Sarah Spector, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) - Nonplanar Nanofabrication via Interface Engineering
Mengdi Bao, Rochester Institute of Technology (USA) - Simple, Sensitive and Instrument-free Detection of Viral Nucleic Acids
Victoria Ravel, George Washington University (USA) - Dual-compartment microelectrode array for investigation of neuronal network media exchange

Oct. 7

Farnaz Niouri (MIT)
Engineering at the Limits of the Nanoscale

Sept. 2

Sijia Xie (Shanghai Industrial mTechnology Research Institute (SITRI), Shanghai, China)

Hybrid structures by direct write lithography—Tuning the contrast and surface topography of grayscale photoresist with nanoimprint (JVSTB- EIPBN 2022 Best Paper Award)

Aug. 5

Theda Daniels-Race (LSU)
One of These Things is Not Like the Others: An African-American Woman's Journey to the Academy

July 2

Jessica Andriolo (Montana Technological University and Alpha Technology, LLC)
Applied Nanoscale Solutions for the Environment, Medicine, and Materials Fabrication

May 6

Grande walk: Highlight on students and postdocs posters
Poster session and Exhibition Hall EIPBN 2021

Apr. 1

Dr. Lucia Romano (ETH Zurich; Paul Scherrer Institute; and University of Catania)
Gas phase MacEtch: unparalleled high aspect ratio silicon nanostructures

Mar. 4

Dr. Rosa Córdoba Castillo (Universitat de València)
How I went from PhD to junior lead researcher

Feb. 4

Helen Kardan, ASML
My career path through the cultures

Jan. 7

Dr. Alexandra Joshi-Imre (University of Texas at Dallas)
Microfabrication of neural interface electrode arrays for chronic in-vivo applications

Yutika Badhe (University of Texas at Dallas​)
Stretchable electronics based on a nanofiber reinforced soft composite material

Dec. 3

Dr. Elizabeth A. Dobisz (Senior Consultant at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

My example of a career path in Nanofabrication

Nov. 5

Dr. Anuja DeSilva (Lam Research)

My career path learnings in Semiconductor Research: How to persevere and advocate?

Oct. 1

Natalya Kublik (Arizona State)

Increasing density of additively manufactured copper parts utilizing solid-nanoporous hybrid feedstock with higher energy absorption properties