Professor Hajimiri Elected to National Academy of Inventors
12-16-15
Ali Hajimiri, Thomas G. Myers Professor of Electrical Engineering; Executive Officer for Electrical Engineering; Director, Information Science and Technology, has been named fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). His research covers broad areas within high-speed and high-frequency electronics- and photonics-integrated circuits. This year, the Hajimiri group synthesized a 3-D camera—called a nanophotonic coherent imager—that provides the highest depth-measurement accuracy (similar to resolution) of any such nanophotonic 3-D imaging device. Election as an NAI fellow is an honor bestowed upon academic innovators and inventors who have "demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions and innovations that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society." [Caltech story] [NAI release]
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Ali Hajimiri
Popping Microbubbles Help Focus Light Inside the Body
12-03-15
Changhuei Yang, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Medical Engineering, and his postdoctoral colleague Dr. Haowen Ruan have developed a novel technique called time-reversed ultrasound microbubble encoded (TRUME) that uses gas-filled microbubbles to focus light inside tissue. "Ultrasound and X-ray techniques can only detect cancer after it forms a mass," Yang says. "But with optical focusing, you could catch cancerous cells while they are undergoing biochemical changes but before they undergo morphological changes." [Caltech story]
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Changhuei Yang
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Cancer Treatment in a Painless Patch
11-05-15
Mechanical engineering undergraduate student, Teo Wilkening, spent this past summer working with Professor Morteza Gharib to test the preliminary design for an alternative—and possibly much less painful—method of chemotherapy drug delivery through a patch. To avoid the pain caused by the large needle traditionally used for such an intravenous injection, the team envisioned a patch containing hundreds of micrometer-scale needles, too small in diameter to be sensed by the nerves in the skin. [Caltech story]
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Professor Gharib Awarded the G.I. Taylor Medal
10-29-15
The Society of Engineering Science (SES) has selected Professor Morteza Gharib to receive the G.I. Taylor Medal. The award is made in recognition of Professor Gharib's sustained and outstanding research contributions to the area of fluid mechanics. Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor (G.I. Taylor) was a British physicist and mathematician, and a major figure in fluid dynamics and wave theory. Past recipients of the medal include Sir James Lighthill, Sydney Goldstein, A.Acrivos, and George K. Batchelor.
In October 2016 a symposium will be organized to honor Professor Morteza Gharib. It will highlight innovative fluid mechanics research in areas where he has made significant contributions. Invited speakers will cover his contributions to quantitative imaging, cardiovascular flow, surface wettability, Micro/Nano fluidics, bioinspired design, and other areas. [Symposium program]
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Atomic Fractals in Metallic Glasses
09-18-15
Julia R. Greer, Professor of Materials Science and Mechanics, and colleagues including graduate student David Chen have shown that metallic glasses has an atomic-level structure although it differs from the periodic lattices that characterize crystalline metals. "Our group has solved this paradox by showing that atoms are only arranged fractally up to a certain scale," Greer says. "Larger than that scale, clusters of atoms are packed randomly and tightly, making a fully dense material, just like a regular metal. So we can have something that is both fractal and fully dense." [Caltech story]
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New, Ultrathin Optical Devices Shape Light in Exotic Ways
09-03-15
Andrei Faraon, Assistant Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science, and colleagues have created silicon nanopillars devices capable of manipulating light in ways that are very difficult or impossible to achieve with conventional optical components. The devices are precisely arranged into a honeycomb pattern to create a "metasurface" that can control the paths and properties of passing light waves. Professor Faraon describes, "this new technology is very similar to the one used to print semiconductor chips onto silicon wafers, so you could conceivably manufacture millions of systems such as microscopes or cameras at a time." [Caltech story] [BBC video clip]
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Professor Gharib Receives APS Fluid Dynamics Prize
06-26-15
Morteza Gharib, Hans W. Liepmann Professor of Aeronautics and Bioinspired Engineering, has been selected to receive the 2015 Fluid Dynamics Prize of the American Physical Society (APS). This prize is the highest award given by the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics for outstanding contributions to fundamental fluid dynamics research. It recognizes Professor Gharib's seminal contributions to measurement techniques in experimental fluid mechanics, elucidation of governing physical principles in flow-structure interactions and vortex dynamics, and creative application of these concepts to a variety of important problems in biological fluid dynamics and beyond.
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New Thin, Flat Lenses Focus Light as Sharply as Curved Lenses
05-08-15
Andrei Faraon, Assistant Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science, and colleagues have created flat microlenses with performance on a par with conventional, curved lenses. Typically, lenses rely on a curved shape to bend and focus light. But in the tight spaces inside consumer electronics and fiber-optic systems, these rounded lenses can take up a lot of room. The Caltech team’s new flat lenses focus as much as 82 percent of infrared light passing through them. By comparison, previous studies have found that metallic flat lenses have efficiencies of only around a few percent. [Caltech story]
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