Stefan Zauscher, Sternberg Family Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Associate Professor of Center for Biologically Inspired Materials and Material Systems and Director of Graduate Studies

My research lies at the intersection of surface and colloid science, polymer materials engineering, and biointerface science, with four central areas of focus: 1. Fabrication, manipulation and characterization of stimulus-responsive biomolecular and bio-inspired polymeric nanostructures on surfaces; 2. Nanotechnology of soft-wet materials and hybrid biological/non-biological microdevices; 3. Receptor-ligand interactions relevant to the diagnostics of infectious diseases; 4. Friction of soft-wet materials, specifically the role of glycoproteins on friction in diarthroidal joints. These four broad lines of inquiry deal with fundamental behaviors of soft-wet materials on surfaces and interfaces. The design and fabrication of these interfaces using "smart" polymeric and biomolecular nanostructures, and the characterization of the resulting structures, are critically important for the development of biomolecular sensors and devices and for bioinspired materials. Key approaches and tools I use in my research are: bottom-up organization on the molecular scale, through self-assembly, in-situ polymerization, and manipulation of intermolecular interactions; topdown fabrication, through scanning probe nanolithography; stimulus-responsive polymers; molecular recognition; and new approaches to sensing and manipulation. This research supports Duke's Pratt School of Engineering strategic initiative to expand research in soft-wet Materials Science.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	144 Hudson Hall
Office Phone:	(919) 660-5360, (919) 660-5310
Email Address:

Teaching (Fall 2013):

• ME 514.01, THEORTICAL & APPLIED POLY SCI Synopsis

  TBA, TuTh 10:05 AM-11:20 AM

  (also cross-listed as BME 529.01)

• ME 555.10, ADVANCED TOPICS Synopsis

  TBA, MTuWThF 08:45 AM-09:35 AM

Education:

PhD	University of Wisconsin-Madison	2000
MS	Oregon State University, Corvallis	1992

Specialties:

Nanomaterial manufacturing and characterization
Polymer and Protein Engineering
Materials
Nanoscience
Sensing and sensor systems
Manufacturing

Research Interests:

Nano-mechanical and nano-tribological characterization (elasticity, friction, adhesion) of materials including organic thin films; self-assembled monolayers, polymeric gels, and cellulosics; Fabrication of polymeric nanostructures by scanning probe lithography; Colloidal probe and atomic force microscopy; Single molecule force spectroscopy applied to ligand-receptor binding; Biomolecular nano- and micro sensors

Curriculum Vitae

Current Ph.D. Students  

• Yee Lam  
• Debby Chang  
• Woo-Kyung Lee  
• Alexei Valiaev  
• Andres Garcia  
• Jianming Zhang  
• Jeff Coles  

Postdocs Mentored

• Nehal Abu-Lail (Spring 2004- Summer 2006)  
• Tao Chen (Summer 2007)  
• Robert Ducker (Spring 2007)  
• Marian Kaholek (Spring 2003 - Spring 2006)  
• Sang-Jung Ahn (Fall 2001 - Spring 2004)  
• Nelson Nunalee (Fall 2006 - Summer 2007)  

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. Tjong, V., Zhang, J., Chilkoti, A., Zauscher, S, Stimulus Responsive Polymers as Intelligent Coatings for Biosensors: Architectures, Response Mechanisms, and Applications, in Intelligent Surfaces in Biotechnology, edited by Textor M. and Grandin M (2012), John Wiley & Sons, New York
2. Chen, Tao and Jordan, Rainer and Zauscher, Stefan, Extending micro-contact printing for patterning complex polymer brush microstructures, POLYMER, vol. 52 no. 12 (May, 2011), pp. 2461-2467, ISSN 0032-3861 [doi]  [abs]
3. Yang, Ye and Erb, Randall M. and Wiley, Benjamin J. and Zauscher, Stefan and Yellen, Benjamin B., Imaginary Magnetic Tweezers for Massively Parallel Surface Adhesion Spectroscopy, NANO LETTERS, vol. 11 no. 4 (April, 2011), pp. 1681-1684, ISSN 1530-6984 [doi]  [abs]
4. Chen, Tao and Jordan, Rainer and Zauscher, Stefan, Polymer brush patterning using self-assembled microsphere monolayers as microcontact printing stamps, SOFT MATTER, vol. 7 no. 12 (2011), pp. 5532-5535, ISSN 1744-683X [doi]  [abs]
5. Ferris, R., Hucknall, A., Kwon, B.S., Chilkoti, A., Zauscher, S., Field-Induced Nanolithography for Patterning of Non-Fouling Polymer Brush Surfaces, Small (Accepted, 2011)