News Archives - NanoES

Pozzo group wins first-place for innovative battery electrodes at National NanoTechnology Challenge

A team from University of Washington Chemical Engineering Professor Lilo Pozzo’s research group took first place in the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI) NanoTechnology Entrepreneurship Challenge (NTEC), held during the Future Innovations session on March 11 at TechConnect in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The NNCI NTEC supports student and post-doc-led nanotechnology innovation and entrepreneurship. Lasting for seven weeks, the virtual, self-paced program concludes with a pitch event where teams present their progress to business leaders.

Led by CoMotion Postdoctoral Entrepreneurship Fellow Kevin Lee and PhD student Zach Wylie, the winning project from the Pozzo Research Group involves the development of next generation high-power-density battery electrodes for power-hungry applications that traditionally relied on diesel. The group will use the $2,500 award from NNCI to continue development and validation of their technology based on the group’s proprietary nanoparticles.

“Through customer-discovery work conducted with NNCI’s NTEC program, we’ve gained a clear understanding of the pain points faced by legacy battery manufacturers,” says Lee and Wylie.

Looking ahead, Lee and Wylie “plan on using NNCI’s facilities such as the Molecular Analysis Facility (MAF) and Washington Nanofabrication Facility (WNF) to characterize our material under industry-relevant conditions and generate data that manufacturers require to evaluate and ultimately adopt our material.”

A mentor’s support turns curiosity into courage, doubt into discovery

Dr. Ọlánrewájú’s commitment to access connects students to meaningful research opportunities. In a profile produced by University of Washington Undergraduate Academic Affairs, learn how his mentorship and philosophy shapes research skills and professional confidence in undergraduates.

Q&A: A UW materials lab probes the mysteries of toughness at the nanoscale

Mechanical engineers in the Meza Research Group at the University of Washington draw inspiration from natural structures to develop new materials.

UW nanoengineers win first prize at national NanoTechnology Entrepreneurship Challenge

On June 10, 2025, Anmol Purohit, Dr. Ji Feng, and Almond Lau won first prize at the NNCI NTEC Showcase for their project, “Synthesis of metal-organic framework particles for removal of short and ultra-short chain PFAS from water”.

Ayokunle Olanrewaju selected for Gates Foundation Global Grand Challenges

NanoES faculty member Ayokunle Olanrewaju (bioengineering, mechanical engineering) and collaborators Ashleigh Theberge and Erwin Berthier will develop a platform for at-home self-collection of blood, serum separation, and sample stabilization at sufficient sample volumes for comprehensive HIV monitoring.

Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list includes four NanoES faculty

David Cobden (physics), David Ginger (chemistry), Charles Marcus (materials science & engineering, physics), and Xiaodong Xu (physics, materials science & engineering) have been recognized for significant influence in their chosen field or fields of research through the publication of multiple papers in the top 1% of citations over the last decade.

Plenty of Beauty at the Bottom: UW engineers create 2025’s Most Stunning microscope image

Santhosh Sridhar, Ankush Nandi, and Shaunak Deshpande won first prize for “Foam in Bloom” in the “Most Stunning” category in the 2025 Plenty of Beauty at the Bottom image contest hosted by the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI).

New ‘liquid metal’ composite material enables recyclable, flexible and reconfigurable electronics

Researchers in Mo Malakooti’s lab (mechanical engineering) have created a recyclable, flexible and self-healing composite material that could replace traditional circuit boards in future generations of wearable electronics.

Ayokunle Olanrewaju earns NIH Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award

NanoES faculty member Ayokunle Olanrewaju (bioengineering and mechanical engineering) has earned a Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The $2.1 million grant is for five years. Often referred to as “R35 awards,” these grants support broad research programs over the course of several years, providing the nation’s most talented and promising researchers “greater stability…enhancing scientific productivity and the chances for important breakthroughs.”

Ultra-flat optic pushes beyond what was previously thought possible

In a first-of-its-kind achievement, a team of researchers at the University of Washington and Princeton University, co-led by NanoES faculty member Arka Majumdar (electrical & computer engineering, physics) and including NanoES director Karl Böhringer (ECE, bioengineering), has shown that a camera containing a large aperture, ultra-flat optic can record high-quality color images and video comparable to what can be captured with a conventional camera lens. The metalens, developed at the Washington Nanofabrication Facility (WNF), is hundreds of times smaller and thinner than a conventional camera lens, offering substantial savings in volume, weight, and device battery life.