Professor Fakhraai Awarded Sloan Research Fellowship

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Zahra Fakhraai has received a Sloan Research Fellowship. Since 1955, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has granted yearly fellowships to early-career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as the next generation of scientific leaders. To qualify, candidates must be nominated by their peers and selected by an independent panel of senior scholars. Each fellow receives a $50,000 award to further his or her research.

Fakhraai’s lab studies structure, dynamics, and chemistry in nanometer-length scales. At the nanoscale, materials display extraordinary behavior. A plastic water bottle, for instance, behaves more like a viscous liquid when zoomed within a nanometer of its surface. Fakhraai is interested in understanding how the properties of materials at the nanoscale differ from bulk. This includes understanding properties of amorphous solids, biopolymers, and interaction of light with matter at surface and interfaces.

To do so, she and her colleagues probe surfaces with nanoparticles and nanoscale probes and observe how the molecules respond. Developing experiments and theories to explain how molecules and biomolecules pack on surfaces will help materials scientists design more effective and longer-lasting nanomaterials or predict properties of biomaterials on cell surfaces. Such an understanding is important in many technological applications, such as organic electronics, polymer applications, and drug delivery.