A year of breakthroughs: Awards and funding for Jack Ma
he past year has been a dynamic one for Associate Professor Zhenqiang (Jack) Ma. In December, Ma was among 67 researchers honored with a Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) at a White House ceremony.
The annual PECASE awards honor the most promising researchers in the United States based on nominations by nine federal departments and agencies. Ma, nominated by the Department of Defense for his leading-edge flexible electronics research, will receive $1 million over five years to continue his work with nanomembrane-based flexible electronics, with emphasis on nanophotonic devices that detect or emit light.
In January, Ma and colleagues Max Lagally, a professor in Materials Science & Engineering, and University of Michigan Professor Pallab Bhattacharya were featured on the cover of Applied Physics Letters. The trio has developed a flexible light-sensitive material that could revolutionize photography and other imaging technologies. The group created curved photodetectors with specially fabricated nanomembranes—extremely thin, flexible sheets of germanium, a very light-sensitive material often used in high-end imaging sensors. Researchers then can apply the nanomembranes to any polymer substrate, such as a thin, flexible piece of plastic. The group demonstrated photodetectors curved in one direction, but Ma hopes next to develop hemispherical sensors.
Most recently, Ma has received a three-year, $402,595 grant from the Office of Naval Research to conduct fundamental research on graphene. Graphene, containing single layer of carbon atoms, is a new type of high-mobility material with promise for future high-speed nanoelectronics.
However, the major obstacle to using graphene in electronics applications is that it lacks a bandgap. Current bandgap-opening methods dramatically reduce the mobility, meaning any devices made from such graphene would be slower.
Ma will use this grant to investigate a novel method to open the bandgap and study the fundamental physical properties of the bandgap-opened graphene..
