Nanoscale Horizons Poster Prize

Martina Martusciello (University of Genoa, Italy)
Poster Title: “Optomechanical characterization of mechanochromic photonic crystals”

Martina Martusciello is a PhD student at the University of Genoa (Italy), currently working in the Rely-Photonics Research Group under the supervision of Professor Davide Comoretto. Martina obtained her MSc cum Laude in Industrial Chemistry in 2022 at the University of Genoa under the joint supervision of Professors Paola Lova and Davide Comoretto, after obtaining a Bachelor’s degree cum Laude in Chemistry in 2019. Before joining the group for her PhD, she spent a period as visiting researcher at the Department of Physics of the University of Pavia, where she worked on the fabrication and study of thin films of PEDOT:PSS. Currently, her work is focused on the study of photonic applications of elastic materials and in particular on the realization of mechanochromic photonic crystals for sensing applications.

Nanoscale Poster Prize

Ilaria Venturino (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy)
Poster Title: “Light controlled bio hybrid actuators”

Ilaria Venturino is currently pursuing a PhD at Politecnico di Milano and Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, under the supervision of Professor Guglielmo Lanzani. She completed both the bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Physics at the Università degli Studi di Milano, with honors awarded for the master’s degree. Her research focuses on skeletal muscle cells stimulated with light.

Nanoscale Advances Poster Prize

Niklas Herrmann (University of Heidelberg, Germany)
Poster Title: “Polarization-dependent strong-coupling in highly aligned PDIF-CN₂ thin films”

Niklas Herrmann is a PhD student at Heidelberg University, under the supervision of Prof. Jana Zaumseil. He obtained his M.Sc. in Chemistry in 2021 from Heidelberg University, Germany. His doctoral research is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft SFB 1249/2 Project C06 and focusses on solution-processing and analysis of electrical and optical properties of crystalline semiconducting N-heteropolycycles.

Chemical Science Poster Prize

Rakesh Arul (University of Cambridge, UK)
Poster Title: “Extreme light confinement for single-molecule mid-IR upconversion and superradiance”

Rakesh Arul recently completed his PhD in the Cavendish Laboratories, University of Cambridge with Prof. Jeremy Baumberg. He is starting as a Research Fellow of St. John’s College Cambridge to continue independent research in the field of nanophotonics and optoelectronics. His PhD research was supported by the Rutherford Foundation of the Royal Society Te Aparangi of New Zealand and the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability. His research interests include the science of how light can be trapped to the nanoscale to control optoelectronic properties and affect chemical transformations.

Materials Advances Poster Prize

Olga Vodianova (University of Glasgow, UK)
Poster Title: “Exploring exciton-exciton annihilation and exciton motion in F8BT with single molecule spectroscopy”

Olga Vodianova is a PhD student in the Hedley Single Molecule Lab, the University of Glasgow, UK, under the supervision of Dr Gordon Hedley. She obtained her MSc at Ivanovo State University of Chemistry and Technology, where her primary research interests were absorption, fluorescence and time-correlated measurements of organic fluorescent BODIPY dyes in solvents and protein media. Currently, her research is focused on studying photophysics and excited state dynamics of organic semiconductors by the means of ultrafast and single molecule spectroscopy.

Jason Zhang (MIT, USA)
Poster Title: “Vaccines combining slow delivery with follicle targeting of immunogen increase both B cell clonal expansion and diversity”

Y. Jason Zhang is a Biological Engineering PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the supervision of Dr. J. Christopher Love and Dr. Darrell J. Irvine. His research focuses on engineering vaccine delivery approaches to improve antibody-mediated immune response and developing high-throughput single-cell genomic tools and computational pipelines to study the mechanism of action of vaccines.

Patricia Nagai de Lima (Brown University, USA)
Poster Title: “Developing methylene blue-loaded liposomes for photodynamic therapy against Candida auris biofilms”

Patricia is a Ph.D. student and holder of a Master’s degree in Applied Sciences in Oral Health from São Paulo State University (UNESP), specializing in Microbiology and Immunology, has committed her research to exploring antimicrobial agents and infectious disease control. Currently, Patricia is concluding a prestigious scholarship as a Visiting Researcher Fellow at Brown University, School of Engineering, specializing in the development of nanomaterials for treating fungal infections. During her Master’s program, she gained recognition as a CAPES Productivity Scholar for her research into the use of phytotherapy against antibiotic-resistant clinical strains of fungi and bacteria. Patricia’s academic journey also includes endodontics training at the Odonto Sales Institute in 2020. With a Bachelor’s degree in Dentistry from the University of Vale do Paraíba (UNIVAP), she was a CNPq scholarship recipient during her undergraduate studies, conducting essential research in a biomedical engineering lab, focusing on biological assays for tissue engineering biomaterials.

Serena Omo-Lamai (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Poster Title: “Physicochemical targeting of lipid nanoparticles to the lungs induces clotting: mechanisms and solutions”

Serena Omo-Lamai is a PhD Candidate in Bioengineering and an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania under the supervision of Dr. Jacob Brenner. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering from Syracuse University. Her research interests are focused on optimizing lipid nanoparticles for applications in vaccines, therapy, and targeted drug delivery to the brain and lungs.

Nanoscale Horizons, Nanoscale and Nanoscale Advances Presentation Prize

Sara Domenici (Politecnico di Torino, Italy)
Presentation Title: “Hybrid piezoresistive 2D MoS₂/PEGDA/PANI covalent hydrogels for wearable strain sensors”

Sara Domenici is a PhD student at Politecnico di Torino (Turin, Italy) under the supervision of Prof. Teresa Gatti. She was born in Verona (Italy) in 1998. In 2020, she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry at the University of Padova (Italy). In 2022, she completed the Double Degree Programme between the University of Padova and the Justus-Liebig University in Giessen (Germany), where she spent 12 months, and obtained a Master’s Degree in Chemistry. Her PhD project is focused on Janus two-dimensional materials for energy conversion, but she also works on hydrogel sensors and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs).

Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B and C Poster Prize

Masahiko Komatsu (Kochi University of Technology, Japan)
Presentation Title: “Fablication of MoS₂ using mist chemical vapor deposition”

Masahiko Komatsu is a second year graduate student at Kochi University of Technology. His main research is the deposition of MoS₂ using mist CVD.