Princeton Engineering

Princeton University physical scientists and engineers will partner with researchers at four other institutions to explore the driving forces behind the evolution of cancer under a five-year, $15.2 million award from the National Cancer Institute.

Two Princeton engineers -- a materials expert and a rocket scientist -- came from societies where science blossomed for a time and then atrophied. Both left their native countries to earn their scientific credentials and now find themselves drawn home to give back to the societies where they were first inspired.

The U.S. Department of Defense has selected Princeton engineers to lead two new multi-institutional research initiatives, one aimed at transforming wireless telecommunications networks and the other at inventing materials that adapt themselves to changing loads and environments.

A Princeton-led team of researchers has discovered an entirely new mechanism for making common electronic materials emit laser beams. The finding could lead to lasers that operate more efficiently and at higher temperatures than existing devices, and find applications in environmental monitoring and medical diagnostics.

The National Science Foundation has awarded nearly $20 million to the Princeton Center for Complex Materials, an interdisciplinary research program dedicated to improving and developing materials for uses ranging from alternative energy production to quantum computing.

As microchips shrink, even tiny defects in the lines, dots and other shapes etched on them become major barriers to performance. Princeton engineers have now found a way to literally melt away such defects, using a process that could dramatically improve chip quality without increasing fabrication cost.

Lynn Loo, associate professor of chemical engineering, has been awarded a 2008 Sloan Research Fellowship. These highly competitive two-year fellowships, which provide $45,000 in research support, "are intended to enhance the careers of the very best young faculty members" in targeted areas of science.

A new technique for printing extraordinarily thin lines quickly over wide areas could lead to larger, less expensive and more versatile electronic displays as well new medical devices, sensors and other technologies.

Bypassing decades-old conventions in making computer chips, Princeton engineers developed a novel way to replace silicon with carbon on large surfaces, clearing the way for new generations of faster, more powerful cell phones, computers and other electronics.

Creating ultrasmall grooves on microchips -- a key part of many modern technologies -- is about to become as easy as making a sandwich, using a new process invented by Princeton engineers.

A little clay and sawdust went a long way at Princeton this month when a group of Trenton-area high school students used the simple materials to create effective, low-cost water filters.

Stephen Chou, the Joseph C. Elgin Professor of Engineering, was recently honored for his contributions to the nanotechnology field with a Nano 50 award from Nanotech Briefs magazine.

Tiny particles filled with medicine may also contain answers to some of the biggest human health problems, including cancer and tuberculosis. The secret is the size of the package. A team led by Robert Prud'homme, professor of chemical engineering and director of the Program in Engineering Biology, created the particles, which are only 100 to 300 nanometers wide -- more than 100 times thinner than a human hair.

From the beginning, Winston Oluwole Soboyejo has been of two worlds -- the developing and the developed.

Stephen Chou and Sergio Verdu, professors of electrical engineering, have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the greatest honors in the engineering field.

As they eliminate tiny air bubbles that form when liquid droplets are molded into intricate circuits, a Princeton-led team is dissolving a sizable obstacle to the mass production of smaller, cheaper microchips.

Princeton's newly acquired e-beam writer functions on a scale of billionths of a meter, but its reach extends across campus and beyond, enhancing the University's nanotechnology facilities and enabling collaborative interdisciplinary research projects.

Fifteen Princeton scientists and engineers will talk about their early-stage entrepreneurial ventures at an Innovation Forum at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 20, in the Friend Center Convocation Room.