Concentration in Chemistry, Applied, and Materials PhysicsMy current research interests focus on studying synthetic nanopores as templates for biomimetic channels. Specifically, I am working on two projects. The first project involves creating a fast and low-cost way of identifying bacteria and bacteriophages using nanopores and machine learning, to improve the turnaround time for classifying bacteria as well as prescribing the correct antibiotics. I presented this work with an oral presentation at the 2023 Biophysical Society Conference. The second project involves studying the transport of organic solvents in small nanopores to understand solvent organization at solid/liquid interfaces for improved manipulation of ionic circuits. I presented this work with an oral and poster presentation at the 2023 Center for Enhanced Nanofluidic Transport Conference and published my work in a paper (Faraday Discuss., 2023,246, 508-519).

My first project involved creating a scanning gate microscopy program with an electrically conductive Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) tip as a movable localized gate that probes carbon nano-tube (CNT) networks electrical transport. We can overlay the conductance data taken at a multitude of points over the topographic AFM image to create a conductive map that will identify the sensing hotspots that we can focus in on for further analysis. This work was presented with a poster presentation at the 2019 APS Far West Conference and the 2020 SACNAS Conference.I also wrote and implemented Python code to analyze data and simulate experimental methods of characterizing CNT networks. I conducted fractal analysis of simulated networks using Image J to show that thin films of randomly-arranged CNTs self-assemble into a network featuring statistical fractal characteristics. The results of my work were included in a published paper (Nanomaterials 2021, 11(3), 636).