February 6
@
12:00 PM
–
1:00 PM
The Mechanics Seminar Series is a weekly seminar given by campus and visiting speakers on topics across the spectrum of mechanics research (solids, fluids, and dynamics). Professor D. Emma Fan is a professor at University of Texas – Austin.
Robotic Materials and Devices Across Scales for Biomedical Applications
Abstract: In this talk, I will discuss our recent work in materials fabrication, manipulation, assembly, and manufacturing tailored towards biomedical applications. The focus is on active materials and robotic devices enabled by materials control across a wide range of length scales. At the nanoscale, I will discuss 3D electrokinetic tweezers, an ultra-precision tool developed in my lab, which can be used to manipulate nanowires in room-temperature aqueous solutions. With this technique, designed nanoparticles are maneuvered as untethered robotic tools for probing single biological cells; the precision reaches 20 nm in position and 0.5° in orientation in solution under a standard microscope. At a slightly larger, chip-scale, I will describe a recent innovation that permits the light-controlled patterning of soft actuators made of microbubbles, which assemble large arrays of nanoparticles in parallel. The co-assembly of nanosensor-cell hybrids can be further achieved that detect metabolites of bacterial cells. Finally, I will present a rational scheme for developing large-scale, hierarchically porous superstructures for applications in monitoring human health and public-health relevant water treatment.
Bio: Dr. D. Emma Fan is Harry L. Kent, Jr. Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, with affiliated appointments in Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Materials Science and Engineering Program, and the Texas Materials Institute.
Prof. Fan leads a research program focused on the fabrication, manipulation, and assembly of intelligent micro/nanoscale structures, 3D hierarchical porous materials, and stimulus-responsive systems.She is a recipient of two NSF awards: the NSF CAREER Award (2012) and the NSF Mid-Career Advancement Award (2022). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2021) and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) (2024), where she was elected to the Board of Directors (2025) by a vote of over 2,000 Fellows. She was named a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors in 2025 and has served as an Official Nominator for the Japan Prize since 2017. Dr, Fan was selected as the 2022 Ilene Busch-Vishniac Lecturer at Johns Hopkins University—an honor that celebrates outstanding women in engineering and aims to inspire the next generation.