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April, 2024 – Congratulations to Zhuang for acceptance for his co-first authored paper in Materials Horizons! The work is entitled “Non-Covalent Planarizing Interactions Yield Highly Ordered and Thermotropic Liquid Crystalline Conjugated Polymers”, led by Prof. Reynolds group. Also thanks to Daniel for his important contributions to resolving the structure.
April, 2024 – Professor Ying Diao has received the 2024 Owens Corning Early Career Award from the Materials Engineering & Sciences Division (MESD) of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)! The Owens Corning Early Career Award is given annually in recognition of outstanding independent contributions to the scientific, technological, educational, and service areas of materials science and engineering. You can find more about the News Here.
April, 2024 – Congratulations to Changhyun for receiving the A.T. Widiger Fellowship from ChBE department!
April, 2024 – Congratulations to Siqing for receiving the Harry G. Drickamer Fellowship from ChBE department!
March, 2024 – The emergence of the Inverse-Chirality-induced spin selective (ICISS) effect on conjugated polymer! You can find more about the article “Printed Polymer Allows Researchers to Explore Chirality and Spin Interactions at Room Temperature” Here. The work appears in Nature Materials.
March, 2024 – Our work on the stretchable plant sensor has been highlighted! You can find more about the article “Study brings scientists a step closer to successfully growing plants in space” here.
Feb., 2024 – Our work on the Tunable structural color printing is making a wave! This work was highlighted by c&en – “Printable polymer with tunable structural color; Light-controlled cross-linking can change material’s optical property on the fly”. Explore the article further here.
Feb., 2024 – Congratulations to Ying for being selected as a “2023 University Scholar”! The University Scholars Program acknowledges exemplary faculty members, symbolizing recognition of their outstanding excellence and the exceptional quality of their work.
Feb., 2024 – Congratulations to Sanghyun for his work being featured in Forbes Magazine’s article titled “Multi-Color Printing With Just One Ink Opens The Door To New Materials.” Explore the article further here.
Feb., 2024 – Congratulations to Xiao for being selected one of six d2024 Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellows!
Feb., 2024 – Congratulations to Azzaya for acceptance of her work by Chemistry of Materials! The work is entitled “Tuning solution aggregate structure of conjugated polymers to enable green solvent processing of organic solar cells”. Thanks also to Pravini for your contributions!
Feb., 2024 – Congratulations to Siqing for the acceptance of his work by Device (a new flagship journal by Cell Press). The work is entitled “Highly stretchable, robust and resilient wearable electronics for remote, autonomous plant growth monitoring”. Thanks also to Bindu Edupulapati, Jackie M. Hagel, Justin, Azzaya, Janice, Daniel, and Kavin for your contributions!
Jan., 2024 – AIChE MESD Newsletter (Volume 55 Issue 1) featured Azzaya, and Siqing. Azzaya won the 2nd place of the MESD poster session in AlChE, and Siqing won the 3rd place AIChE graduate student award in the Electronics and Photonic Session! Congratulations and well done!
Jan., 2024 – Congratulations to Kyung for acceptance of her co-first authored paper by Nature Materials! The paper is entitled “Inverse Chirality-Induced Spin Selectivity Effect in Chiral Assemblies of π-Conjugated Polymers” in close collaboration with Sun group at NCSU. Thanks also to Yen-Chi for your help with this work.
Jan., 2024 – Congratulation to Sanghyun for acceptance of his co-first authored work in PNAS! The work is entitled “Direct-Ink-Write Crosslinkable Bottlebrush Block Polymers for On-the-fly Control of Structural color”. Thanks to Bijal Patel for his contributions as well. You can find more about this paper here.
Nov., 2023 – Xiao Huan joined our group as a postdoctoral scholar. He will be working on 3D printing of structural color. Welcome!
Nov., 2023 – Our work on the helical assemblies of achiral conjugated polymer is making a wave! You can find more about the article “Researchers identify unexpected twist while developing new polymer-based semiconductors” here.
Nov., 2023 – Congratulations to Siqing for winning 3rd place AIChE Graduate Student Award in the Electronics and Photonics session!! Well done!
Nov., 2023 – Azzaya won the 2nd place of the MESD poster session in AlChE!! Congratulations!
Oct., 2023 – Alec has joined our group as a first-year graduate student. He will be working on understanding general assembly pathway of organic solar cell. Welcome!
Oct., 2023 – Congratulations to Kyung for acceptance of her manuscript by ACS Central Science! The work is entitled “Subtle molecular changes largely modulate chiral helical assemblies of achiral conjugated polymers by tuning solution-state aggregation”. Thanks to co-authors Justin and Azzaya for your contributions! You can find more about this paper here
Aug., 2023 – Pravini Fernando joined our group as a postdoctoral scholar. Welcome!
July, 2023 – Congratulations to Siqing for being selected for the AIChE graduate student award symposium in Electronics and Photonic Materials!
July, 2023 – Congratulations to Rui for being named a Shen Postdoctoral Fellow for 2023-24!
July, 2023 – Congratulations to Azzaya for being awarded the 2023-24 A.T. Widiger Chemical Engineering Fellowship!
June, 2023 – Azzaya won the poster award at the conference for Pi-conjugated systems held in Raleigh, NC. Congratulations!
June, 2023 – Professor Ying Diao is awarded the prestigious University Scholar title! This award represents recognition of the her consistent excellence throughout her work. Further information about this news can be found here.
May, 2023 – Congratulations to Sanghyun for receiving the 2023 KSEA-KUSCO Graduate Scholarship!
May, 2023 – Congratulations to Azzaya, Zhuang, and Jong-Hoon for acceptance of their joint first author paper by Chemical Reviews! It has been a tour de force – the longest paper we’ve ever written. The paper is entitled “From Solution to Thin Film: Molecular Assembly of π-Conjugated Systems and Impact on (Opto)electronic Properties”. Thanks to Gonzalo, Changhyun, and Brandon Onusaitis for their contributions as well.
You can find more about this paper here.
May, 2023 – Professor Ying Diao invited to give New Horizons Solvay lectures. The titles of her lectures are “Cooperative Polymorphic Transitions for Dynamic Electronic Crystals” and “Non-Equilibrium Assembly of Functional Polymers for Sustainable Earth and Habitable Mars.” Further information about this news can be found here.
May, 2023 – Congratulations to Siqing for being selected for the Summer 2023 Hanratty Travel Award!
April, 2023 – Congratulations on acceptance of Jong-Hoon ‘s work, entitled “Recycling the Energy of Indoor Light: Highly Efficient Organic Photovoltaics via a Ternary Strategy” by ACS applied polymer materials! Also thanks to co-authors Azzaya, and Changhyun for your contributions! You can find more about this paper here.
April, 2023 – Check out the news story in Nature Methods where Ying shares her experience of “Science while parenting”.
Mar., 2023 -Our work on the Molecular cooperative process in an organic semiconductor is highlighted by Beckman Institution. You can find more about the article “Molecular teamwork makes the organic dream work” here.
Mar., 2023 – Congratulations to Azzaya! Her manuscript entitled “Solution Aggregate Structures of Donor Polymers Determine the Morphology and Processing Resiliency of Non-Fullerene Organic Solar Cells” has been accepted by Chemistry of Materials. Thanks also to Andrew, Justin, Sangkyu, and Jessica for your contributions to this work! You can find more about this paper here.
Feb., 2023 – Congratulations to Daniel for acceptance of his work by Nature Communications! The work is entitled “Unraveling Two Distinct Polymorph Transition Mechanisms in One n-Type Single Crystal for Dynamic Electronics”. Many thanks to Sangkyu, Tim, and Prapti for your contributions! You can find more about this paper here.
Dec., 2022 – Congratulations to Daniel for acceptance of his paper by Crystal Growth & Design. The work is entitled “Controlling Polymorphic Transitions in n-Type Organic Semiconductor Single Crystals by Alkyl Chain Engineering”. Also thanks to co-authors Giorgio, Changhyun, Sangkyu for your help with this work! You can find more about the paper here.
Oct., 2022 – Austin, Janice, Priyotosh, and Yen-chi has joined our group as a graduate student. Welcome everyone, looking forward to see your wonderful works!
Oct., 2022 – Congratulations to Justin for acceptance of his manuscript by Macromolecules! The work is entitled “Understanding the Aggregation and Flow Response of Donor-Acceptor Conjugated Polymers”. Thanks to Kyung and Bijal for your contributions! You can find more about the paper here.
Jul., 2022 – Congratulations to Zhuang for receiving the PPG-MRL Graduate Fellowship Award! You can check more about PPG-MRL graduate fellowship Award here
Jun., 2022 – Congratulations to Azzaya for being awarded the A.T. Widiger Chemical Engineering Fellowship!
Jun., 2022 – Congratulations to Zhuang Xu for acceptance of his manuscript by Advanced Materials! The work is entitled “Not all aggregates are made the same: Distinct structures of solution aggregates drastically modulate assembly pathways, morphology and electronic properties of conjugated polymers”. Thanks to co-authors Kyung, Justin, Bijal, Prapti, and Daniel for your contributions!
May, 2022 – Congratulations to Justin for acceptance of his manuscript by Macromolecules! The work is entitled “Understanding Solution State Conformation and Aggregate Structure of Conjugated Polymers via Small Angle X-ray Scattering”. Thanks to co-authors Kyung and Bijal for your contributions! Justin truly owns this work – he is both the first author and co-corresponding author!
May, 2022 – Congratulations to Prapti for acceptance of her manuscript by Langmuir! The work is entitled “Role of Interfacial Interactions in Graphene-Directed Assembly of Monolayer Conjugated Polymers”. Thanks to the co-authors Kyung, Fengjiao, Caroline for your contributions as well!
Apr., 2022 – Congratulations to Kyung for acceptance of her manuscript by Nature Communications! The work is entitled “Chiral emergence in multistep hierarchical assembly of achiral conjugated polymers”. Thanks to coauthors Bijal, Justin, Prapti for their contributions!
Mar., 2022 – Congratulations to Daniel for successfully defending his doctoral thesis on “Molecular Origins of Polymorphic Phase Transitions for Dynamic Organic Electronics”. Dr. Davies will be heading to the Milliron group at UT Austin for a postdoc position. Well done Danny!
Mar., 2022 – Ying is presenting “Printing functional polymers for sustainable Earth and havitable Mars” at the Beckman Institute’s Director’s Seminar at noon on Thursday, March 3. Check out more about Ying’s seminar on Beckman Institute and Youtube.
Feb., 2022 – Congratulations to Bijal for acceptance of his work by ACS Polymer Au(invited research article)! The work is entitled “Concentration-Driven Self-Assembly of PS-b-PLA Bottlebrush Diblock Copolymers in Solution”. Thanks to Larry Chang, Kush Patel, Justin, and Kyung for your concentrations!
Feb., 2022 – Congratulations to Zhuang for receiving the Robert A. and Eleanor L. Flinn Travel Award in support of his presentation at the upcoming Materials Research Society’s Spring Meeting and Exhibit in May! Great Job Zhuang!
Jan., 2022 – Congratulations on acceptance of Bijal’s paper in Soft Matter! The work is entitled “Rapid, Interface Driven Domain Orientation in Bottlebrush Diblock Copolymer Films During Thermal Annealing”. Thanks to Kush Patel, Do Hoon Kim, and Justin for your contributions to this work!
Jan., 2022 – Justin re-joined our group as a new postdoc! Great to see you again Dr. Kwok!
Nov., 2021 – Congratulations to Daniel for being selected as a Finalist of the 2021 SCS Science Image Challenge! Contratulations for Azzaya and Prapti for being as the Winner of the 2021 SCS Science Image Challenge! We look forward to seeing your science as art images in the Willard Airport!
Nov., 2021 – Congratulations to Azzaya for receiving the Spring 2022 Hanratty Travel Award! This award will support her to attend MRS Spring 2022 Meeting in person.
Nov., 2021 – Congratulations to Prapti for acceptance of her manuscript by ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces! The work is entitled “Drastic Modulation of Molecular Packing and Intrinsic Dissolution Rate by Meniscus-Guided Coating of Extremely Confined Pharmaceutical Thin Films”. Thanks Rishabh, Samdisha, Azzaya and Danny for your contributions to this work! You can read the paper here.
Oct., 2021 – Congratulations to Justin for defending his doctoral thesis on “Solution state aggregation and flow-induced alignment of conjugated polymers”. Well done, Dr. Kwok!
Oct., 2021 – Bijal successfully defended his thesis on “Self-assembly and additive manufacturing of bottlebrush block copolymer photonic materials”. Great job, Dr. Patel!
Oct., 2021 – Rui Zhang joined our group as a postdoctoral scholar. Good to have you here, Rui!
Oct., 2021 – Tiara Torres Flores (ChBE) joined our group as a first year graduate student. Welcome!
Oct., 2021 – Siqing and Azzaya represented our group to participate in the 20th Annual Graduate Research Symposium. Congratulations to Azzaya for winning a third place by presenting a poster on “Tuning the Molecular Assembly Pathway for Morphology Control in Organic Solar cells”! We also thank Siqing for his participation and contribution to the group! Read more at ChBE homepage.
Aug., 2021 – Contratulations to Ying for being recognized with a 2021 Campus Distinguished Promotion Award! Ying was recognized by the scope, quality, and the impact of her scholarship, teaching, service, and engagement efforts. Read more at ChBE homepage.
Aug., 2021 – Sanghyun Jeon (MSE) joined our group as a first year graduate student. He will be working on printing stomata sensors. Welcome Sanghyun!
Aug., 2021 – Contratulations to Azzaya for receiving the 2021-22 3M Corporate Fellowship! This fellowship is given by the ChBE department based on her exceptional achievement. Keep going Azza!
Aug., 2021 – Contratulations to Daniel for receiving the 2021-22 DuPont Science and Engineering Fellowship! This fellowship is chosen by the ChBE department on a competitive bases! Great Job Danny!
Aug., 2021 – Contratulations to Zhuang for receiving the Dr. Harold R. Snyder Fellowship! This fellowship is awarded by the Chemistry Department based on his outstanding achievement in the coursework and research. We are proud of you Zhuang!
Aug., 2021 – Contratulations to Gonzalo for the acceptance of his work by the Journal of Chemical Physics as part of the JCP Emerging Investigators Special Collection! Thanks to the co-authors Michael Bernhardt and Daniel for your contributions! You can read the paper here.
Jun., 2021 – Contratulations Azza for receiving the 2021 SCS Teaching Award!
Jun., 2021 – Prapti successfully defended her doctoral thesis! She will start her career as a Senior Scientist at Merck! Congratulations Dr. Kafle! We will miss you!
Jun., 2021 – Congratulations to Gonzalo and Rachel for the selection of their beautiful origami artwork as a cover of Crystal Growth and Design! Check out their work online here.
May, 2021 – We had a group party celebrating lots of events during last 1.5 years! We are partly going back-to-office, Ying has been promoted to associate professor, and new students and scholars have joined. We also published/submitted manuscripts and got some national awards and fellowships. Great work everyone!
May, 2021 – Congratulations to Ying for her promotion to Associate Professor with indefinite tenure! Her promotion comes with an Campus Distinguished Promotion Award from the Provost office and the title of I. C. Gunsalus Scholar from LAS. Read more about her Gunsalus Scholar appointment here.
Apr., 2021 – Congratulations to Daniel for winning the MRS Best Poster Award! Danny is the first to win this award from our group! Keep up the great job! Check out the MRS homepage here.
Apr., 2021 – Congratulations to Bijal, Daniel, Prapti, and Zhuang for being awarded LAS Impact Award for “3D printing facemasks for frontline workers during the medical supply shortage”! Read more at LAS homepage.
Apr., 2021 – Congratulations to Gonzalo for rapid acceptance of his first paper from our group by Crystal Growth & Design! The paper is entitled “Enhancing Single-Crystal Dichroism of an Asymmetric Azo Chromophore by Perfluorophenyl Embraces and Boron Coordination”. Thanks to Rachel and Daniel for your contributions! You can read the paper online here.
Apr., 2021 – Congratulations to Zhuang for being selected for the highly competitive National School on Neutron and X-ray Scattering to be held virtually from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory this summer!
Mar., 2021 – Congratulations to Bijal for being awarded the prestigious and highly competitive NRC Postdoctoral Fellowship! Bijal has accepted an offer to carry out his postdoctoral work at NIST Polymer Processing Group led by Dr. Dean DeLongchamp.
Mar., 2021 – Congratulations to Daniel for receiving the Summer 2021 A. T. Widiger Chemical Engineering Fellowship!
Mar., 2021 – Congratulations to Bijal for acceptance of his manuscript, “PolyChemPrint: A Hardware and Software Framework for Benchtop Additive Manufacturing of Functional Polymeric Materials” by the Journal of Polymer Science! This is an invited contribution to the Young Investigator Special Issue. Thanks to Larry, Sang, Siqing, and Kush for your contributions! You can read the paper online here. Check here to learn more about PolyChemPrint.
Mar., 2021 – Congratulations to Daniel for receiving a Spring 2021 Conference Participation Award from the Graduate College! This award will support his participation in MRS Spring meeting.
Mar., 2021 – The group welcomes our new postdoc Dr. Jong-Hoon Lee! We are happy to have you here!
Mar., 2021 – Congratulations to Daniel on the acceptance of his manuscript by Chemistry of Materials! This work is entitled “Radically Tunable n-Type Organic Semiconductor via Polymorph Control”. Thanks to Sangkyu, Prapti, and Tim for their help with this work. You can read the paper online here.
Dec., 2020 – Ying receives NASA Early Career award to help astronauts grow vegetables in space by developing printed electronics for plants! Read more in LAS News.
Dec., 2020 – Azzaya’s image “The Colors of Fall” is selected as a finalist of the 2020 SCS Science Image Challenge! The image is a cross-polarized microscopy image of a crystallized polymeric material used to fabricate organic solar cells using solution printing. Congratulations!
Dec., 2020 – Congratulations to Kyung, Justin, and Prapti(3 co-first authors) on the acceptance of their massive review paper entitled “When Assembly Meets Processing: Tuning Multiscale Morphology of Printed Conjugated Polymers for Controlled Charge Transport” by Chemistry of Materials! Read the paper online here.
Dec., 2020 – Congratulations to Prapti for a Fall 2020 Graduate College Conference Award!
Nov., 2020 – Ying presented the group’s latest work on assembly of organic electronics in the Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, ETH Zurich, and in the Department of Polymer Science & Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Thanks to the hosts for the kind invitation and hospitality!
Nov., 2020 – Gonzalo led a workshop called “Crystals hidden in your kitchen” in Cena y Ciencias(Spanish for “Supper and Science”) to engage with the Hispanic/Latino bilingual community in the Urbana Public School District. Gonzalo taught them the ice-cream making process. Read more at Illinois I-STEM News.
Nov., 2020 – Congratulations to Zhuang and Kyung on the acceptance of their invited mini review by Frontiers of Chemistry! The paper is entitled “What is the assembly pathway of a conjugated polymer from solution to thin films?” Read the paper online here.
Oct., 2020 – Prapti’s work on printing 2D polymer electronics is highlighted by Argonne National Lab!
Oct., 2020 – Changhyun Hwang (ChBE), Kavinraaj Elangovan (ChBE) join the group as first year graduate students! Welcome!
Oct., 2020 – Our invited review on dynamic crystals is published as part of the 2020 Emerging Investigator themed collection of Chemical Society Reviews. Big thanks to the first author Dr. Sang Kyu Park for the heavy lifting! Read the paper here.
Sept., 2020 – Ying presented the group’s latest work on understanding assembly pathways of organic electronics in the Frontiers in Chemical Engineering Symposium, California Institute of Technology, and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder. Thanks to the hosts for the kind invitation and stimulating discussions!
Aug., 2020 – Congratulations to Zhuang for being awarded the Carl S. Marvel Fellowship by the Department of Chemistry!
Aug., 2020 – The group welcome two new postdocs, Songsong Li and Gonzalo Campillo-Alvarado! Songsong is co-advised with Prof. Charles Schroeder. Gonzalo joins us as a DRIVE distinguished postdoc fellow!
Aug., 2020 – Diao group is excited to be part of the Molecular Maker Lab Institute – one of seven new NSF AI Institutes in the nation! Look forward to advancing AI-guided materials discovery through this center effort. Read more here.
Jun., 2020 – Congratulations to Ge! Her paper entitled “Lyotropic Liquid Crystalline Mesophase Governs Interfacial Molecular Orientation of Conjugated Polymer Thin Films” has been rapidly accepted by Chemistry of Materials. Thanks to co-authors Kyung, Prapti, Fengjiao, Justin and Bijal for their contributions.
Jun., 2020 – Congratulations to Bijal for receiving the inaugural ChBE Graduate Student Teaching Award!
May, 2020 – Ying again made it to the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students for teaching an undergrad core course ChBE 421 Momentum and Heat Transfer!
May, 2020 – Congratulations to Prapti for being selected as one of the Mavis Future Faculty Fellows for the 2020-2021 academic year!
Apr., 2020 – Congratulations to Sang! His paper entitled “Super- and Ferro-elastic Organic Semiconductors for Ultraflexible Single Crystal Electronics” has been rapidly accepted by Angewandte Chemie International Edition! Thanks to Tim, Bijal, Fengjiao, and Danny for their contributions and to our collaboration from the Zhao group. Read the paper online here and the press release by the Beckman Institute. This work has been featured on EurekAlert!, ScienceDaily, Phys.org etc.
Apr., 2020 – Congratulations to Bijal for acceptance of his research paper in Science Advances! The paper is entitled “Tunable Structural Color of Bottlebrush Block Copolymers through Direct-Write 3D Printing from Solution”. Thanks to Chris Kim and Justin Kwok for their contributions and to our collaborators from the Guironnet group. Read the paper online here and the Illinois News. This work has been featured on Science Advances front page, Advanced Photon Source front page, EurekAlert!, Phys.org etc.
Apr., 2020 – Our group is 3D printing facemasks for donation to local and Chicago hospitals. Thanks to Bijal Patel for leading this project and for creating the initiative of Champaign Community COVID Relief (CCCR)! Many of our group members contributed; thanks in particular to Daniel Davies, Prapti Kafle, Zhuang Xu who volunteered for the production effort. We are grateful for the financial support of our department to make this happen. Check out the CCCR website and ChBE website for more details.
Feb., 2020 – Ying is selected as a Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professor (LEAP) Scholar for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. Congratulations! Read the LAS News.
Feb., 2020 – Congratulations to Tim for acceptance of his last paper from our group by Crystal Growth & Design. The paper is entitled “Understanding the Role of Bulky Side Chains on Polymorphism of BTBT-based Organic Semiconductors”. Thanks to Bijal for his contribution to this work.
Feb., 2020 – Ying had a stimulating visit to the Carbon Electronics Cluster at NCSU! She presented the group’s work as a plenary speaker of the 2020 NCSU Future of Materials Workshop. Many thanks to Prof. Franky So for the invitation and hosting!
Jan., 2020 – Ying had a great visit to the NanoEngineering Department of UCSD. She gave a Student Choice Seminar on directed assembly of organic electronics inspired by living systems. Thanks so much to Prof. Darren Lipomi and Prof. Nisarg Shah for hosting!
Jan., 2020 – Congratulations to Prapti! Her paper entitled “Printing 2D conjugated polymer monolayers and their distinct electronic properties” has been rapidly accepted by Advanced Functional Materials! Also thanks to Fengjiao for her important contributions to this work and to our collaborators from the Rodríguez-López group.
Dec., 2019 – We had a group holiday party celebrating an exciting 2019 and many wonderful achievements of our students and scholars! We graduated three doctors (Erfan Mohammadi, Tim Chung, Ge Qu) and published/submitted 15 manuscripts. Our senior graduate students snatched multiple national awards in research! #Proud.
Dec., 2019 – Bijal receives Hanratty Travel Award for his upcoming trip to ACS Spring National Meeting!
Dec., 2019 – Erfan’s last paper from our group, entitled “Role of Multivalent Interactions in Dynamic-Template-Directed Assembly of Conjugated Polymers” is accepted by ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Congratulations to Erfan and co-authors Prapti, Kai-Yu, Weikun! Also thanks to our collaborators from the Evans group.
Dec., 2019 – Ge successfully defended her thesis on understanding interfacial morphology of organic semiconductors! Congratulations to Dr. Qu! She will move on to a postdoc position with Prof. Enrique Gomez at Penn State.
Dec., 2019 – Ying had a stimulating visit to the Birck Nanotechnology Center of Purdue University! She delivered a lecture on directing non-equilibrium assembly of printed electronics.
Nov., 2019 – Ying visits Georgia Tech as a seminar speaker in the “Graduate in Nanotechnology” seminar series and presented the group’s work on bioinspired assembly of organic semiconductors. Great to see the thriving organic electronic community there!
Oct., 2019 – Tim’s paper entitled “Single Atom Substitution Alters the Polymorphic Transition Mechanism in Organic Electronic Crystals” has been very rapidly accepted by Chemistry of Materials! Congrats to Tim and to co-author s Steven and Danny. Also thanks to our collaborations from the Clancy group and Geerts group.
Oct., 2019 – Zhuang Xu (Chem), Azzaya Khasbaatar (ChBE), Siqing Wang (ChBE) join the group as first year graduate students! Welcome and look forward to an exciting journey in research!
Oct., 2019 – Bijal snatches the first place in oral presentations during the 2019 ChBE Graduate Research Symposium and Prapti won the second place in poster presentations! Way to go! Read ChBE news for more details.
Oct., 2019 – Tim successfully defended his thesis on understanding polymorphism and polymorph transition mechanisms of organic semiconductors! Congratulations Dr. Chung! He will start his career at Intel.
Sept., 2019 – Congrats to Fengjiao! Her Nature Communications paper on repurposing failed anticancer drugs as bioactive organic semiconductors comes online. Thanks to Prapti for her contributions to this work. This work is featured on Illinois homepage, NSF Research News and by EurekAlert!, Phys.org, ScienceDaily etc.
Sept., 2019 – Ying discusses recent work on dynamic, cooperative assembly of organic electronics at Stevens Institute of Technology. Thanks to Prof. Stephanie Lee for the invitation!
Sept., 2019 – Congrats to Justin for passing the prelim exam, and to Tim for a very successful thesis defense!
Aug., 2019 – Tim’s Nature Communications paper on cooperative, martensitic transition in organic semiconductor single crystals is listed as along the Top 50 most read Nature Communications physics articles published in 2018! Read more at https://www.nature.com/collections/cfjbjdecce. Way to go, Tim!
Aug., 2019 – The first undergrad lead-authored paper from our group is now online! The paper entitled “Quantitative Image Analysis of Fractal‐Like Thin Films of Organic Semiconductors“ is published by Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics as part of a special issue on Conjugated Polymers. Proud of our undergrad researcher Weikun (Spencer) and his grad mentor Erfan! Weikun is now pursuing graduate study at MIT.
Aug., 2019 – Congratulations to Kyung and Justin for the publication of their paper “Tuning Conformation, Assembly and Charge Transport Properties of Conjugated Polymers by Printing Flow” in Science Advances! Thanks to Ge and Prapti for their contributions. This work is highlighted on Illinois homepage and by EurekAlert!, Science Daily, Phys.org, the Engineer etc.
Jul., 2019 – Ying gives a talk and participates in the Telluride Science Research Center (TSRC) workshop on “The Role of Assembly in Dictating the Functionality and Applications of Organic Semiconductors”. Thanks to Prof. Chad Risko and Prof. Natalie Stingelin for the invitation!
Jun., 2019 – Ying serves as the discussion leader for session “Crystal Growth at Nanoscale” in the Gordon Research Conference on Crystal Growth & Assembly. Thanks to Prof. Jeff Rimer and Prof. Kristen Fichthorn for organizing this fantastic conference!
Jun., 2019 – Ying gave an invited talk and had a blast at the 24th biannual International Conference on the Chemistry of the Organic Solid State (ICCOSS XXIV) in New York City. Thanks to Prof. Michael Ward, Prof. Bart Kahr, and Prof. Yves Geerts for the invitation!
May, 2019 – Congratulations to Erfan for acceptance of his paper by ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces entitled “Ion Gel Dynamic Templates for Large Modulation of Morphology and Charge Transport Properties of Solution-Coated Conjugated Polymer Thin Films“! Thanks to Fengjiao and Ge for their contributions.
May, 2019 – Ying visits Stanford University and gives a seminar on directing non-equilibrium assembly of molecular electronics in the Chemical Engineering Colloquium. Thanks to Prof. Zhenan Bao for the kind invitation!
May, 2019 – Ying is selected as a Beckman Fellow by the Center of Advanced Studies in academic year 2019-2020! A primary mission of the Center is to identify and support the most productive and innovative faculty at Illinois.
May, 2019 – Congratulations to Erfan for the rapid acceptance of his paper by Molecular Systems Design & Engineering (Invited for Emerging Investigators special issue)! The paper is entitled “Design Rules for Dynamic-Template-Directed Crystallization of Conjugated Polymers“. Thanks to Ge and Prapti for their contributions.
Apr., 2019 – Ying receives 2019 Early Career Award from the American Vacuum Society’s Prairie Chapter!
Apr., 2019 – Tim won the MRS Silver Graduate Student Award for his work on understanding cooperative polymorphic transition of molecular electronic crystals. Congrats!
Apr., 2019 – Justin won the prestigious U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) award, “in recognition of outstanding academic accomplishments and the merit of the SCGSR research proposal, and reflects Justin Jonathan Kwok’s potential to advance the Ph.D. studies and make important contributions to the mission of the DOE Office of Science.” Congratulations! Read the news here.
Apr., 2019 – Congratulations to Prapti, Daniel and Bijal for passing the prelim exams!
Apr., 2019 – Congratulations to Bijal for receiving the A.T. Widiger Fellowship for summer 2019!
Apr., 2019 – Congratulations to Erfan for successfully defending his doctoral thesis on designing dynamic templates for controlling crystallization of semiconducting polymers! He is the first doctor from our group and will head to Intel after graduation!
Apr., 2019 – Ying is named an Emerging Investigator in Crystal Growth & Design! Read the news by ACS Publications here. The special Emerging Investigator Virtual Issue features Tim’s work on understanding hybrid mechanism of nucleation and cooperative propagation in single crystal polymorphic transitions.
Apr., 2019 – Ying gave an invited lecture at the American Physical Society (APS) meeting on non-equilibrium assembly of conjugated polymers. Thanks to Dr. Dean DeLongchamp for the invitation!
Feb., 2019 – Ying is selected to receive the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research by College of Engineering!
Nov., 2018 – Prapti’s image “Feathers of the Ocean” is selected as a finalist of the 2018 SCS Science Image Challenge! The image is a printed anticancer drug at the nanoscale. See her publication for further details.
Nov., 2018 – Prapti designs and leads polymer activities in Cena y Ciencias (Spanish for “Supper and Science”) at Dr. Preston Williams Elementary School in Urbana organized by Illinois MRSEC. Read more at Illinois I-STEM news.
Nov., 2018 – The group receives NSF CAREER award to study multiscale assembly of conjugated polymers at dynamic, reconfigurable interfaces! Read the ChBE news here.
Oct., 2018 – Ying gave an invited talk “Printing Semiconducting Polymers to Order” in the Plenary Session “Emerging Areas in Polymer Science and Engineering” during the AIChE Annual Meeting.
Oct., 2018 – Congratulations to Tim for winning the 2nd place in the Graduate Award Symposium of AIChE Area 8E (Electronics and Photonics)! He presented his work on Molecular Design of Cooperative Transition for Shape Memory Electronics.
Oct., 2018 – Ge’s paper entitled “Understanding Film-to-Stripe Transition of Conjugated Polymers Driven by Meniscus Instability” is accepted in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Congratulations to Ge and thanks to all co-authors, Justin, Erfan and Fengjiao for their contributions! Read the ASAP article here.
Oct., 2018 – Congratulations to Tim for winning the 2018 Doh Wonsuk Memorial Award! Only 1-2 Korean doctoral students across US get it every year. Tim will receive the award in 2018 AIChE Annual Meeting in Pittsburg, PA.
Oct., 2018 – Prapti won 3rd place for her oral presentation in the ChBE Graduate Research Symposium! She presented her work on printing low-dimensional pharmaceuticals and their nanocomposites. Check out the ChBE news here.
Jul., 2018 – Ge is awarded the 2018-2019 Harry G. Drickamer Graduate Research Fellowship and Tim is awarded the 2018-2019 Glenn E. and Barbara R. Ullyot Graduate Fellowship. Congratulations to Tim and Ge!
Jun., 2018 – Tim’spaper “Hybrid mechanism of nucleation and cooperative propagation in a single-crystal-to-single-crystal transition of an organic semiconductor” is now published in Crystal Growth & Design. Congratulations!
Jun., 2018 – Ying made it to the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent for her Spring 2018’s elective course ChBE 494/594 “Assembly of Functional Materials”.
May, 2018 – Ge and Tim both have been selected as finalists for the upcoming AIChE Graduate Award Symposium, for Area 8A (Polymers) and Area 8E (Electronics and Photonics), respectively. Way to go!
Apr., 2018 – Bijal receives Honorable Mention from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Read more at Illinois graduate college news.
Apr., 2018 – Ying is awarded Chemistry of Materials Reviewer Excellence Award, as top 1% reviewer of 2017!
Apr., 2018 – Prapti receives an prestigious International fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW). Recipients are selected for academic achievement and demonstrated commitment to women and girls. Congratulations to Prapti! Read more at ChBE news.
Apr., 2018 – Tim is awarded the 2018 A.T. Widiger Fellowship in Chemical Engineering and the Spring 2018 Graduate College Conference Travel Award. Congratulations!
Apr., 2018 – Congratulations to Erfan for winning the MRS Graduate Student Silver Award! Read more at ChBE news.
Apr., 2018 – The group receives seed grant from Illinois MRSEC to work together with the Schroeder group on printing 2D nanostructured bioactive electronics!
Mar., 2018 – Ying receives 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award among 21 recipients nationally. Thanks to 3M for the generous support! Read more at ChBE news.
Mar., 2018 – Liz and Prapti’s co-first authored paper “Solution Coating of Pharmaceutical Nanothin Films and Multilayer Nanocomposites with Controlled Morphology and Polymorphism” is accepted in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. Congratulations!
Feb., 2018 – Ying is awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in Chemistry this year. The Sloan fellowships “honor early career scholars whose achievements mark them as among the very best scientific minds working today”. Thanks to the entire group for all the excellent research that this award honors! Read more at Illinois News Bureau, LAS news, The News-Gazette.
Jan., 2018 – Tim and Erfan are awarded Spring 2018 Hanratty Travel Awards and will present their work at the 2018 MRS Spring Meeting!
Jan., 2018 – Ying and the group is featured in the “LAS Experts” series. Check out the news on the LAS website.
Jan., 2018 – Tim’s work on shape memory electronics published in Nature Communications is featured by Illinois News Bureau and widely circulated in news media including the EurekAlert!, Science Daily, R&D magazine, Phys.org, etc.
Dec., 2017 – Congratulations to Prapti for winning the 2017 SCS Science Image Challenge! Check out her art work “Colors of Nature” in our Gallery.
Dec., 2017 – Tim’s paper “Rotator Side Chains Trigger Cooperative Transition for Shape and Function Memory Effect in Organic Semiconductors” is accepted in Nature Communications. Congratulations to him and co-author Fengjiao!
Nov., 2017 – Bijal’s invited review “Multiscale Assembly of Solution-Processed Organic Electronics: the Critical Roles of Confinement, Fluid Flow, and Interfaces” is accepted in Nanotechnology, as part of the ‘Focus Collection in Nanotechnology’ on the subject of Hierarchical Nanostructures. Congratulations!
Oct., 2017 – Fengjiao and Erfan’s paper “Critical Role of Surface Energy in Guiding Crystallization of Solution Coated Conjugated Polymer Thin Films” is accepted for publication in Langmuir‘s Early Career Authors in Fundamental Colloid and Interface Science Themed Issue. Congratulations!
Sept., 2017 – Our group, together with Sing, Guironnet and Rogers groups are awarded NSF DMREF grant to advance the frontiers of 3D printing! Read the news on ChBE and LAS websites.
Aug., 2017 – Congratulations to Bijal, Daniel and Prapti for passing the qualifying exams to become PhD candidates!
Aug., 2017 – Ge’s paper on flow-induced interfacial alignment of semiconducting polymers is accepted by ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Congratulations to Ge and co-authors Fengjiao and Erfan!
Jul., 2017 – Erfan’s work on bio-inspired dynamic templating published in Nature Communications is featured by Illinois News Bureau and widely circulated in news media including the Science Magazine, EurekAlert!, Science Daily, R&D magazine, Phys.org, etc.
Jun., 2017 – Erfan receives JME Graduate Student Award and Fengjiao is awarded the Shen Postdoctoral Fellowship from the department! Congratulations to both!
Jun., 2017 – Ying is selected as one of 83 young engineers from industry, academia, and government nationwide to participate in the National Academy of Engineering’s 23rd annual U.S. Frontiers of Engineering symposium (NAE USFOE)! Here is NAE’s press release.
Jun., 2017 – Tim is awarded Summer 2017 Hanratty Travel Award to support his trip to the Gordon Research Conference on Crystal Growth & Assembly. He is selected to give an oral presentation at the Gordon Research Symposium!
May, 2017 – Read the story by Illinois News Bureau on Fengjiao’s work of printed nanoporous sensors! The news is widely circulated in science media including Science Magazine, EurekAlert!, The Engineer etc.
May, 2017 – Our paper on dynamic-template-directed polymer crystallization has been accepted by Nature Communications. Congrats to first author Erfan and co-authors Ge & Fengjiao! The work is done in collaboration with Shukla, Zuo, and Mei research groups.
May, 2017 – Congratulations to our third year graduate students, Ge, Erfan and Tim for passing the Prelim Exam!
May, 2017 – Fengjiao’s Advanced Materials paper on molecular doping of printed nanoporous electronics comes online! Congrats to all co-authors, Fengjiao, Weikun (undergrad) and Tim!
May, 2017 – Our Advanced Functional Materials paper on nanoporous sensors toward health and environmental monitoring is published online and will be highlighted on the journal back cover! Congrats to Fengjiao and co-authors Ge & Erfan!
Apr., 2017 – Ying gave an invited talk entitled “Bioinspired Electronics – a Molecular Perspective” at the MRS/Kavli Future of Materials workshop on flexible and stretchable bioelectronics presented by MRS Bulletin. Thanks to the organizers for the kind invitation!
Apr., 2017 – Congratulations to Rebecca for winning the top prize in the campus-wide 2017 Image of Research Competition (UG edition)! Check out her winning image “A Semiconductor Rose by Any Other Name” in our Gallery. She is also featured in the ChBE News at Illinois.
Mar., 2017 – Several group members receive summer research fellowships on a competitive basis. Erfan is awarded the A.T. Widiger fellowship and Ge receives the Chia-chen Chu fellowship from the department. Weikun wins the Research Support Grant sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research. Congratulations!
Feb., 2017 – Erfan is awarded a Spring 2017 Hanratty Travel Award and will present his work at ACS National Meeting!
Jan., 2017 – Congratulations to Bijal, Daniel, and Prapti for passing the quantitative qualifying exams!
Jan., 2017 – Ying made it to the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students!
Dec., 2016 – Ying gave an invited talk in the Birck Nanotechnology Center Seminar Series at Purdue University. Thanks to Prof. Alex Wei for the kind invitation!
Nov., 2016 – Congratulations to Liz and Yi for winning the SCS Science Image Challenge again this year! Check out their winning image “Feathers of Autumn” in our Gallery.
Nov., 2016 – Ge and Justin’s paper entitled “Flow-Directed Crystallization for Printed Electronics” is accepted for publication in Account of Chemical Research (invited). Congratulations!
Oct., 2016 – Congratulations to Ge and Tim for winning the poster awards at the ChBE Grad Research Symposium!
Oct., 2016 – First year graduate students Daniel Davies, Prapti Kafle, Bijal Patel join our group. Welcome!!
Sept., 2016 – Congratulations to Ge for receiving a Fall 2016 Hanratty Travel Award!
Aug., 2016 – Ying is named to MIT Technology Review’s annual list of Innovators Under 35 as a pioneer in nanotechnology and materials. The news has also been featured on the university’s homepage and department’s homepage.
July, 2016 – Congratulations to Erfan for being listed as “Teachers Ranked as Excellent” for the last academic year!
July, 2016 – Ying visited the Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Science and presented the group’s recent work. Thanks to the organizers, Prof. Lv and Dr. Di for the warm reception!
July, 2016 – Ge is awarded Spirit Aerosystems Graduate Fellowship for academic year ‘16-’17. Congratulations to Ge!
July, 2016 – Ying gave a invited lecture on directing multi-scale assembly of conjugated polymers at ICSM16 – the longest running international conference on conducting and semiconducting organic materials.
June, 2016 – Diao group is awarded an NSF EAGER grant to develop a new method for controlling polymer crystallization and assembly for printed electronics!
April, 2016 – Reahman (Adeel) is selected as a Chancellor’s Public Engagement Student Fellow! This fellowship carries a high prestige and Adeel will receive the award from the Chancellor. He will travel to Ghana this summer and empower women in their communities through green energy opportunities. Congratulations to Adeel!
April, 2016 – Congratulations to Rebecca for clinching the second place in the 2016 Image of Research Competition (UG edition)! Check out her winning image “Crystal Confetti” in our Gallery.
April, 2016 – Rebecca won the second place in the OXE Undergraduate Research Symposium! She presented a poster on new methods for fabricating large single crystals for flexible electronics. Congratulations! The news is featured on the Illinois ChBE Homepage.
April, 2016 – Congratulations to Liz for being selected as a Mavis Future Faculty Fellow (MF3) for 2016-2017 by the College of Engineering!
February, 2016 – Tim is awarded the Widiger Graduate Fellowship for Summer 2016. Congratulations to Tim!
February, 2016 – Rebecca is awarded the Worth Huff Rodebush Scholarship by the department. Congratulations!
February, 2016 – Justin passes the qualifying exam of MSE. Congratulations to Justin for becoming a PhD candidate!
January, 2016 – Our first review paper authored by Tim is accepted for publication in the ‘Emerging Investigators’ themed issue of the Journal of Materials Chemistry C. Congratulations to Tim and the group!
Dec., 2015 – Congratulations to Ge for becoming a Spirit AeroSystems Fellow in Chemical Engineering!
Nov., 2015 – Congratulations to Liz and Yi for being selected as a winner of the 2015 Science Image Challenge! Check out their winning image “Beauty in the Curve” in our Gallery. The competition is hosted by the School of Chemical Sciences at Illinois.
Oct., 2015 – Welcome to graduate student Justin Kwok (MSE) for joining our lab!
Sept., 2015 – Congratulations to Erfan, Ge and Tim for passing the qualifying exams to become PhD candidates!
Aug., 2015 – Ying’s work on flow-enhanced solution printing of solar cells published Nature Communications is featured in the science media, including SLAC news, ScienceDaily, Phys.org, etc.
Aug., 2015 – Dr. Fengjiao Zhang joins our group as the founding postdoctoral scholar. Welcome!
Jul., 2015 – The whole group had a great time engaging high school girls from all over US in the science behind crystal making! Our event is featured on the Facebook page of ChBE @ Illinois and the Illinois ChBE homepage.
July, 2015 – Ying gave a well-received talk at Gordon Research Conference – Crystal Growth and Assembly on her recent work of flow enhanced solution printing of organic semiconductors.
Jun., 2015 – Congratulations to Erfan for being selected as a Dow Chemical Company Graduate Fellow for 2015-16!
Jun., 2015 – We made our first trip to Argonne National Lab, Advanced Photon Source to ‘see’ structures of molecular assemblies with synchrotron X-ray!
Jun., 2015 – The lab is moving into our new home at Davenport Hall!
Apr., 2015 – Congratulations to Ge and Tim for receiving the University Block Grant Fellowship!
Apr., 2015 – Congratulations to Rebecca and Adeel for acceptance into the highly competitive ISUR program!
Apr., 2015 – Ying is giving a invited lecture on April 7th at MRS Spring Meeting at San Francisco, in symposium “Crystal Engineering – Design, New Materials and Applications”
Feb. – Mar., 2015 – Yifu (’17), Kurt (’17), Adeel (’18) join our group to conduct independent undergrad research projects! Rebecca (’17) will also join from Fall this year. Welcome!
Feb., 2015 – Ying is appointed as the “Dow Chemical Company Faculty Scholar”. Congratulations!
Jan., 2015 – Our lab has officially started at University of Illinois!
Oct., 2014 – Ying’s recent work on polymorphism in organic semiconductor thin films has been accepted to publish in the journal JACS.
Oct., 2014 – Hyunjoong(Tim) Chung, Erfan Mohammadi, Ge Qu join our group as the founding graduate students! Welcome to the new group members!
Sept., 2014 – Diao group has a number of open positions. Check out the page ‘Openings’ for details.
Aug., 2014 – Ying has been awarded the William E. and Diane M. Spicer Young Investigator Award, featured in the SLAC news. This award recognizes her innovative work at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory during her postdoctoral study on printed organic semiconductors.
Jul., 2014 – Ying’s recent work on molecular packing control is highlighted in Nature Materials News and Views by Prof. John Anthony (doi:10.1038/nmat4034).
May, 2014 – Ying is awarded Best Presentation of the Organic Electronics Symposium at Materials Research Society spring meeting this year. The title of her presentation is “Unraveling Polymorphism of Organic Semiconductors”.