Research Interests
Research in my group aims to uncover underlying mechanisms of material interactions at environmental and biological interfaces to develop sustainable design guidelines that ensure their use in products does not lead to unintended consequences. In pursuit of this research, we work at both the molecular- and systems-level. At the molecular-level, we manipulate chemical composition and atomic arrangement of materials to control their function and hazard profiles. Materials we currently work with include carbon nanomaterials (graphene, carbon nanotubes, carbon nitride), inorganic nanoparticles (silver, copper), and natural polymer molecules for tunable delivery platforms. At the systems-level, we employ existing tools, such as life cycle assessment, to quantify environmental, performance, and economic tradeoffs of emerging technologies early in the development inform redesign to minimize adverse impacts up- and down-stream of use.