Nanotek & Expo

Biography

Dr. Donglei Fan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin since January 2010. She received her bachelor's degree in chemistry from the Department of Intensive Instruction (DII), an honor program for gifted youth, from Nanjing University (NJU) in 1999, master's (2003) and doctorate (2007) degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU). She also obtained another master's degree in Electrical Engineering from JHU in 2005. Between 2007 and 2009, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at JHU. Her research focuses on exploiting the fundamental magnetic, optical, chemical, and mechanical properties of materials for innovative design, manufacturing, and applications of nanomaterials in biochemical sensing, single live cell stimulation, MEMS/NEMS, and energy conversion and storage devices. She is the inventor of Electric Tweezers that can precisely manipulate nanoscale materials in aqueous suspension by combined AC and DC electric fields. Prof. Fan's research has spurred a series of publications including Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, Physical Review Letters, Advanced Materials, Applied Physics Letters, ACS Nano, and a few pending patents.In 2012, Prof. Fan has won the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award. Her work on bottom-up assembling of inorganic nanomotors was selected as the #3 of ‘10 discoveries that will shape the future in 2014’ by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Focus magazine. She was one of 30 US young engineers, selected and invited to attend the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) 2013 EU-US Frontier of Engineering Symposium in France. She was an invitee of National (NAS) Arab-American Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine symposium in 2014. She was featured by ‘Woman in Nanoscience,’ an NSF supported scientific blog highlighting achievements of woman scientists in US. She was honored as a Recognized Mentor by the Siemens Foundation in 2012, a finalist of the Beckman Young Investigator Award (24 finalists nationwide), and nominated for the 2010 MIT Technology Review's TR35 award, which recognizes the world's top young innovators. She received NSF Fellowship for the California Institute of Technology Summer Program (2007), Postdoctoral Fellowship at JHU, Scholarships for Excellence at NJU (1996~1999), and early admission to JHU waived of National College Examination and awarded the Freshman Scholarship (1995). She won multiple awards in national/state academic competitions in Physics, Biology and Mathematics in high and middle schools.Dr. Fan's research program focuses on bridging fabrication of nano-functional materials with their applications via exploiting fundamental physical and chemical principles for innovative manufacturing and applications of nanomaterials in biochemical sensing, single live cell stimulation, MEMS/NEMS, and energy conversion and storage devices.

Research Interest

Dr. Fan's research program focuses on bridging fabrication of nano-functional materials with their applications via exploiting fundamental physical and chemical principles for innovative manufacturing and applications of nanomaterials in biochemical sensing, single live cell stimulation, MEMS/NEMS, and energy conversion and storage devices.