9/4/2007 Bridget Maiellaro, ECE Illinois
ECE Professor Jean Pierre Leburton and postdoctoral research associate Maria Gracheva were recently named Best Paper Finalists at the Seventh International Conference on Nanotechnology (IEEE- NANO 2007) for their paper entitled, " Simulation of electrically tunable semiconductor nanopores for DNA sequencing."
Written by Bridget Maiellaro, ECE Illinois
ECE Professor Jean-Pierre Leburton and postdoctoral research associate Maria Gracheva were recently named Best Paper Finalists at the Seventh International Conference on Nanotechnology (IEEE- NANO 2007) for their paper entitled, "Simulation of electrically tunable semiconductor nanopores for DNA sequencing."
"It’s always a good feeling when your work is well regarded and appreciated," Leburton said.
Over the three years they have worked together, Leburton and Gracheva have completed five research papers. However, this is the first time they received an award for best paper. While the pair began working on the paper earlier this year, they have been investigating the use of semiconductor technology in biology for five years.
"Our work has shown that by using very thin layers of silicon materials, one can reproduce the basic functions of a human cell by regulating ionic flow through the membrane surrounding the cell," Leburton said.
Gracheva, who earned her engineer-physicist degree from the Moscow State Engineering Physics Institute in Russia and arrived at Illinois in 2004, said she believes bionanotechnology has great potential for biological and medical applications.
"...It is fascinating to be able to create human-made devices that mimic the way nature works, such as ion and protein filters, which we are working on, and imitate the operation of cell membrane channels," she said.
The international conference, which was held Aug. 2 through Aug. 5 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, was organized by the IEEE Nanotechnology Council, a multi-disicplinary IEEE group aimed to advance and coordinate work in the field of Nanotechnology. Approximately 450 guests attended the event, including Leburton.
"First of all, I attended because of my affiliation with the society for which the topic of conference is exactly in my field of research," Leburton said.
The first IEEE Nanotechnology Council international was held in 2001 in Maui, Hawaii. Other past locations include San Francisco, Calif.; Munich, Germany; Nagoya, Japan; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Washington D.C. The 2008 conference will be held in Dallas, Tex.
Leburton, a research professor in the Coordinated Science Laboratory and a member of the Computational Electronics Group at the Beckman Institute, has been one of the Nanotechnology Council’s technical committee members for five years. He has been affiliated with IEEE for 24 years.
While this may be his first nomination for best paper, Leburton has received numerous honors and recognitions, including the Quantum Devices Award for "Outstanding Achievement in the Area of Compound Semiconductor Research," in 2004.
Leburton said that he and his research team are currently focused on modeling and simulation of a variety of electronic and optical nanoscale materials, such as nanowires, carbon nanotubes and quantum dots for applications in highly functional devices.