May 13, 2014 – UD spin-off company is working to develop puncture-resistant surgical gloves
Health care workers in the United States suffer an estimated 385,000 needlestick injuries per year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Up to 90 percent of these injuries occur in the hand and can expose surgeons, nurses and other health care staff to infection from blood-borne pathogens such as HIV and hepatitis B and C. The average cost of a needlestick injury to a hospital is $2,500. Researchers at STF Technologies LLC, a spin-off company from the University of Delaware, are working to develop a puncture-resistant surgical glove, according to the company’s co-founders Norman Wagner and Richard Dombrowski. STF Technologies grew out of federally funded research by Wagner, the Alvin B. and Julia O. Stiles Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UD. Wagner co-invented shear thickening fluid (STF) armor technology — a smart material that can change from a liquid to a solid in response to ballistic and puncture threats — in collaboration with Eric Wetzel at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Maryland. Under mechanical stress or “shear,” tiny ceramic particles in the STF are driven together, causing the material to behave as a solid. Adding this STF to a fabric creates a nanocomposite material that can harden rapidly to form a temporary protective shield before becoming flexible again. The technology is already under development for use in multi-threat body armor employed to protect soldiers, police and first responders. Read more…
April 14, 2014 – UD researchers demonstrate that processing can affect size of nanocarriers for targeted drug delivery
Significant advances have been made in chemotherapy over the past decade, but targeting drugs to cancer cells while avoiding healthy tissues continues to be a major challenge.Nanotechnology has unlocked new pathways for targeted drug delivery, including the use of nanocarriers, or capsules, that can transport cargoes of small-molecule therapeutics to specific locations in the body.The catch? These carriers are tiny, and it matters just how tiny they are. Change the size from 10 nanometers to 100 nanometers, and the drugs can end up in the wrong cells or organs and thereby damage healthy tissues.A common assumption is that once a nanocarrier is created, it maintains its size and shape on the shelf as well as in the body. However, recent work by a group of researchers led by Thomas H. Epps, III, and Millicent Sullivan in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware has shown that routine procedures in handling and processing nanocarrier solutions can have a significant influence on the size and shape of these miniscule structures. Read more…
March 25, 2014 – UD hosts one-day symposium with National Center for Neutron Research
The University of Delaware’s first “Neutron Day” symposium in 2012 drew about 30 participants. This year, the event attracted more than 100 attendees, reflecting the rapidly expanding use of neutron scattering as a research tool.Neutron scattering, which shows the location and behavior of atoms, allows researchers to see in real time how material structure changes with variations in temperature, pressure, and magnetic or electronic fields.The technology supports the development of new materials for a broad range of applications from drug delivery systems to nanostructured membranes for environmental and energy applications, superconducting cables, and solar cells.The one-day event at UD brought leading scientists and engineers from the University’s Center for Neutron Science together with more than 30 scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Center for Neutron Research (NCNR). The group, which also included industrial scientists, met to discuss new areas of neutron scattering science, with an emphasis on strengths in complex fluids, macromolecular science, and condensed matter physics. The program featured seven technical talks and more than 25 posters. Read more…
March 6, 2014 – NSSA elects UD professors Glyde, Wagner to fellowship program
University of Delaware professors Henry Glyde and Norman Wagner have been selected as fellows of the Neutron Scattering Society of America (NSSA). Founded in 1992, the NSSA has more than 1,000 members worldwide who help promote neutron scattering research. Designation as an NSSA Fellow distinguishes Glyde and Wagner among the top one half of one percent of their peers.Wagner, Alvin B. and Julia O. Stiles Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, was nominated for “outstanding scholarship in neutron scattering methods applied to soft matter science” as well as education and academic leadership and service. Wagner, who currently directs the Center for Neutron Science (CNS), is known for developing new neutron scattering methods used internationally along with his work with STF-Armor, a novel nanocomposite co-invented with U.S. Army Research Laboratory scientists.The professors will be inducted during the American Conference on Neutron Scattering in Knoxville, Tenn., in June. Read more…
March 6, 2014 – Paper featured on Soft Matter blog
‘Spatiotemporal stress and structure evolution in dynamically sheared polymer-like micellar solutions’ by A. Kate Gurnon, Carlos R. Lopez-Barron, Aaron P. R. Eberle, Lionel Porcar and Norman J. Wagner* has recently been highlighted on the Soft Matter blog as a hot article for March.
June 2011 – Matthew Helgeson, recent PhD grad, presented his 2010 award lecture at the ACS Colloids and Surface Science Symposium in Montreal in June, 2011. This award is given annually to the best doctoral thesis in the field awarded within the last 3 years in the USA and Canada. He was advised by Prof. Norman Wagner and Prof. Eric Kaler of the Department of Chemical Engineering. The images are of Matt receiving the award from Prof. Michael Bevan, Chair of the awards committee and standing with Prof. Wagner. The award web site with info: http://colloidssurfaces.org/victor-k-lamer-award/. Matt’s inventive and groundbreaking research spans multiple fields where he has made seminal contributions to our understanding of complex fluids, surfactant and nanoparticle science, and materials processing. His research improves our abilities to create nanofibers by electrospinning, develops fundamentally new methods of structuring consumer products using nanoparticles and self-assembled surfactants (patent pending), and provides a new, fundamental understanding of molecular interactions in complex fluids. He also developed new experimental methods for using neutron scattering to study the microstructural transformations in complex fluids under flow, which have provided critical data necessary to understand important issues in materials processing. This award is s testament to the excellent science and engineering in Matt’s thesis research. We look forward to his future research accomplishments as he starts his career at UCSB.
May 2018 – Matt Helgeson receives a poster award (entitled “Spatially-resolved structural evolution of wormlike micelles through the shear banding transition”) at the 4th biennial American Conference on Neutron Scattering held in Santa Fe NM (May 2008). The conference is sponsored by the Neutron Scattering Society of America, and the conference is intended to showcase recent scientific results in neutron science in a wide range of fields, including soft and hard condensed matter, liquids, biology, magnetism, engineering materials, chemical spectroscopy, crystal structure, fundamental physics, and developments in neutron instrumentation.
CNS Students Shuang Liu (MSEG) and Monica Branco (ChE and Biochemistry and Chemistry) win ACS Excellence in Graduate Polymer Research Awards.
