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Michael Zach, assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and guest faculty researcher with the Argonne National Laboratory, recently received a prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for his program, “Electroplate and Lift Lithography: Easily Making Patterned Nanowires Using Non-Sacrificial Templates.”
An expert in nanotechnology, Zach’s $401,442 NSF grant is being augmented by $38,000 from UWSP and the College of Letters and Science. In addition, he is receiving a matching $165,672 WiSys grant over the first three-year period.
“This is a real coup for the department, College of Letters and Science, and the university,” said Chris Cirmo, dean of the College of Letters and Science. “It is very rare when a faculty member at a regional, master’s-granting university such as Stevens Point receives such recognition. It is a testament to Professor Zach and the wonderful teaching and research happening at UWSP.”
According to Zach, his NSF CAREER Award funds student research in developing a new paradigm for nanomanufacturing called electroplate and lift lithography. This process for making patterned nanowires educates and inspires undergraduates who would otherwise not be exposed to high-tech, cutting-edge nanomanufacturing.
“It is my goal to move this theory into practice, with the end goal of application for a variety of private sectors from medicine to clothing,” said Zach. “The key is to provide the right set of conditions for self-assembly of nanowires using low-energy methods rather than using more traditional brute force methods for manufacturing. My research targets new ways to produce patterned nanowires that can then be grown into circuits and components for manufacturing materials with vastly improved material properties.”
According to Zach, there are many ways to make large quantities of nanowires, but most techniques result in large numbers of tangled masses of wires. By dramatically improving the ease of creating specific shapes and types of nanowires, we can then apply that knowledge to numerous economic sectors, including health care, electronics and manufacturing.
