Apparao M. Rao | |
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Born | India |
Occupation | Physicist |
Title | Robert A. Bowen Endowed Professor of Physics, Founding Director of the Clemson Nanomaterials Institute, and Former Associate Dean for Discovery in the College of Science, Clemson University |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of Kentucky |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Condensed Matter Physics |
Apparao M Rao is the Robert A. Bowen Endowed Professor of Physics in the department of physics and astronomy,the founding director of the Clemson Nanomaterials Institute,and a former associate dean for discovery in the college of science at Clemson University. His research in nanoscience and nanotechnology has been cited over 54,600 times in open literature and his h-index is 98. [1] He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society,the American Association for the Advancement of Science,the National Academy of Inventors,and the Materials Research Society. In 2012,he received the Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievements in Research,and has served on the Advisory Panel for the Dean and the Vice-President of Research,Clemson University. His research and development efforts led to the establishment of Clemson Nanomaterials Institute,which supports sustainable research and development capacity and competitiveness in the U.S. and the State of South Carolina. The State of South Carolina conferred on him its highest honor - the 2014 Governor’s award for excellence in scientific research. [2]
Rao is also an adjunct professor at the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning,India where he initiated a nanomaterials program,and directs research projects of M.S. and Ph.D. students. Recently,he was the Brahm Prakash Endowed Visiting Chair Professor,Indian Institute of Science,Bengaluru,India.
Rao has developed a number of technologies for spectroscopic characterization of nanocarbon allotropes,synthesis methods for controlling the morphologies of carbon nanotubes or CNTs,and scalable nano-manufacturing of CNT-based devices. [3]
Rao's research also includes the discovery of novel phenomena in nanocarbon systems,device development for electronics, [4] photonics, [5] and drug delivery. Rao's research includes the following topics:
Rao's Raman spectroscopic studies of fullerenes and CNTs helped make Raman spectroscopy an important tool of nanocarbon research. Rao’s other research includes the synthesis and measurement of electrical and mechanical properties of nonlinear CNT morphologies,such as branched and helical CNT forms which exploit unique functionality at the nanoscale. His group demonstrated double decoupling of thermoelectric devices with a high figure of merit and compatibility factor. [7] His recent research focuses on energy harnessing (e.g.,harvesting near room temperature waste heat) and energy storage (e.g.,supercapacitors and batteries) technologies.
Richard Errett Smalley was an American chemist who was the Gene and Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry,Physics,and Astronomy at Rice University. In 1996,along with Robert Curl,also a professor of chemistry at Rice,and Harold Kroto,a professor at the University of Sussex,he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of a new form of carbon,buckminsterfullerene,also known as buckyballs. He was an advocate of nanotechnology and its applications.
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Mildred Dresselhaus,known as the "Queen of Carbon Science",was an American physicist,materials scientist,and nanotechnologist. She was an institute professor and professor of both physics and electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also served as the president of the American Physical Society,the chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,as well as the director of science in the US Department of Energy under the Bill Clinton Government. Dresselhaus won numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom,the National Medal of Science,the Enrico Fermi Award,the Kavli Prize and the Vannevar Bush Award.
Fullerene chemistry is a field of organic chemistry devoted to the chemical properties of fullerenes. Research in this field is driven by the need to functionalize fullerenes and tune their properties. For example,fullerene is notoriously insoluble and adding a suitable group can enhance solubility. By adding a polymerizable group,a fullerene polymer can be obtained. Functionalized fullerenes are divided into two classes:exohedral fullerenes with substituents outside the cage and endohedral fullerenes with trapped molecules inside the cage.
In nanotechnology,a carbon nanobud is a material that combines carbon nanotubes and spheroidal fullerenes,both allotropes of carbon,forming "buds" attached to the tubes. Carbon nanobuds were discovered and synthesized in 2006.
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Timothy S. Fisher is an American educator,engineer and expert in the application of nanotechnologies. He is a former professor of mechanical engineering at the School of Mechanical Engineering,Purdue University and Director,Nanoscale Transport Research Group-Purdue University. He currently teaches at the University of California,Los Angeles. He took his Bachelor of Science and doctorate at Cornell University in 1991 and 1998,respectively. Fisher became the chair of mechanical and aerospace engineering department at University of California,Los Angeles,starting July 1,2018.
Lee Young-hee is a South Korean physicist. He is a distinguished professor in physics and energy science at Sungkyunkwan University as a SKKU fellow. He is also director of the Center for Integrated Nanostructure Physics in the Institute for Basic Science (IBS). He has been a Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher in the cross-field category in 2018–2023.
Ajay Kumar Sood is an Indian physicist and researcher currently serving as the 4th Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.
Yury Georgievich Gogotsi is a Ukrainian scientist in the field of material chemistry,professor at Drexel University,Philadelphia,United States since 2000 in the fields of Materials Science and Engineering and Nanotechnology. Distinguished University and Trustee Chair professor of materials science at Drexel University —director of the A.J. Drexel Nanotechnology Institute.
Carbon peapod is a hybrid nanomaterial consisting of spheroidal fullerenes encapsulated within a carbon nanotube. It is named due to their resemblance to the seedpod of the pea plant. Since the properties of carbon peapods differ from those of nanotubes and fullerenes,the carbon peapod can be recognized as a new type of a self-assembled graphitic structure. Possible applications of nano-peapods include nanoscale lasers,single electron transistors,spin-qubit arrays for quantum computing,nanopipettes,and data storage devices thanks to the memory effects and superconductivity of nano-peapods.
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Maurizio Prato,is an Italian Organic Chemist,who is best known for his work on the functionalization of carbon nanostructures,including fullerenes,carbon nanotubes and graphene. He developed a series of organic reactions that make these materials more biocompatible,less or even non toxic,amenable to further functionalization,and easier to manipulate. He is Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Trieste and Research Professor at CIC BiomaGUNE in San Sebastián,Spain.
Niveen M. Khashab is a Lebanese chemist and an associate Professor of chemical Sciences and engineering at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia since 2009. She is a laureate of the 2017 L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science "for her contributions to innovative smart hybrid materials aimed at drug delivery and for developing new techniques to monitor intracellular antioxidant activity." She is also a fellow of the Royal Chemical Society,and a member of the American Chemical Society.
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