Led by CBES deputy director Monica Olvera de la Cruz, a team of researchers observed a classical system that exhibits a transition between insulating and conducting states. The group hopes this will accelerate the development of safe solid-state batteries, with the usage of metallizable colloidal crystals for future prototypes.

CBES researchers led by Kyle Bishop and Monica Olvera de la Cruz have demonstrated the use of DC electric fields to drive back-and-forth rotation of micro-particles in electric boundary layers. These particle oscillators could be useful as clocks that coordinate the organization of active matter and even, perhaps, orchestrate the functions of micron-scale robots.

“Tiny particle oscillators could enable new types of active matter that combine the swarming behaviors of self-propelled colloids and the synchronizing behaviors of coupled oscillators,” Bishop said. “We expect interactions among the particles to depend on their respective positions and phases, thus enabling richer collective behaviors—behaviors that can be designed and exploited for applications in swarm robotics.”

CBES senior investigator Danna Freedman has been named one of 11 finalists in the chemistry category for the 2021 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists. Three winners — one each in life sciences, chemistry, and physical sciences and engineering — will be announced on July 20. The awards honor outstanding faculty-level scientific researchers and engineers age 42 and younger.

CBES senior investigator Chad Mirkin has been named the winner of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s de Gennes Prize, which celebrates the most exciting chemical science taking place today. Mirkin won the prize for contributions to supramolecular chemistry and nanoscience, in particular the invention and development of methods for nanolithography, high-area rapid printing, and photocontrol in nanoparticle synthesis.

CBES senior investigator Anna Balazs has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Balazs, Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, is one of 120 newly elected members to the prestigious academy — including a one-year record of 59 women.

“Throughout her career, Anna has advanced the field of materials and computational modeling, and we are so proud that the National Academy of Sciences has bestowed her with this honor,” said James R. Martin II, U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering at Pittsburgh. “Her research has built the foundation for future materials and their use in ways that even only a decade ago were science fiction.”

Northwestern University researchers have advanced their quest to design life-like behaviors into robotic soft matter, reporting on new systems that move faster than previous iterations and undergo predictable 3D shape changes — all in response to light.

Sangmin Lee recently earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan under the supervision of CBES senior investigator Sharon Glotzer. In this Q&A, Lee describes his CBES-supported research and the plans for his new postdoctoral appointment at the University of Washington.