Recent Works
Welcome
Nan Yao is the Director of PRISM Imaging and Analysis Center at Princeton University, where he teaches courses in materials science and engineering in the undergraduate and Ph.D. programs. After receiving a Ph.D. in applied physics and electron microscopy from Arizona State University, he went into industry, first working at the Shell Development Company, then at the Exxon (now ExxonMobil) Research and Engineering Company. He joined Princeton University in 1993 to help build an imaging and analysis program, which is now one of the preeminent imaging and analysis centers in America. In 2003, Yao accepted a continuing appointment as a Senior Research Scholar (rank of full professor) at Princeton University.
Nan Yao’s research has been focused on utilizing advanced imaging, diffraction, spectroscopy and manipulation techniques, in tandem with molecular dynamic simulations, to conduct fundamental studies of the structure-composition-processing-property relationships in complex materials such as nanostructured materials, biomaterials and bio-inspired materials, carbon and metal oxide nanotubes, organic/inorganic interfaces, photonic materials, functional block copolymer thin films, catalysts, quasicrystals, piezoelectric nanomaterials, etc. Yao has published two books entitled “Handbook of Microscopy for Nanotechnology” (Springer/Kluwer Publishers, 2005, Tsinghua University Press, 2006) and “Focused Ion Beam System: Basics and Applications” (Cambridge University Press, 2007). He has also authored 8 book chapters and more than 160 research papers in journals including Nature, Science, Physics Review Letters, Nano Letters, etc. Yao serves on the Editorial Board for seven professional journals and is on the research proposal advisory committee for NSF, NASA, NIH, and two US National Labs (Oak Ridge and Brookhaven). Yao has chaired or co-chaired eight international symposia and delivered over twenty invited lectures in recent years. He was a keynote speaker in the US R&D Magazine’s Research Lab Expo Conference in 2005 and has been the Lead Judge in materials and nanoscience in the Siemens National Science Competition since 2006.
Nan Yao is a two-time recipient of Princeton Engineering Council Award for Excellence in Teaching (2007, 2008). In addition to the regular for-credit classes, Nan Yao has also conducted a series of short courses and workshops in the field of microscopy characterization of materials. More than two thousand undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and industrial scientists from more than thirty universities and fifty industrial companies have enjoyed their learning experience in Nan Yao's classroom at Princeton. Students in his research group have won Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Fellowship, Barry M. Goldwater National Scholarship, Harvey Fellowship, LeRoy Apker Award, AFCEA National Grand Prize for Science, National Science Foundation Fellowship, National Defense Science and Engineering Fellowship, Materials Research Society Student Award, Microscopy Society of America Undergraduate Research Award (4 times), etc.
|
Princeton University |
PRISM Imaging and Analysis Center |