Eilaf Egap (née Ahmed) is an adjunct assistant professor of Materials Science at Rice University. She works on imaging techniques and biomaterials for early diagnostics and drug delivery. She was a Massachusetts Institute of Technology MLK Visiting Scholar in 2011.
Eilaf Egap | |
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Alma mater | University of Washington Stony Brook University |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | Emory University Massachusetts Institute of Technology Rice University |
Thesis | New Organic Semiconductors for Electronics and Optoelectronics (2011) |
Doctoral advisor | Samson Jenekhe |
Early life and education
editEgap was born in Athens, Ohio, and went to school in New York City.[1] She started her academic career at Stony Brook University as a philosophy major, but was inspired by her chemistry professor and switched to chemistry.[1] She graduated from Stony Brook University in 2005.[2] She completed her postgraduate studies in 2011 at the University of Washington under the supervision of Samson Jenekhe.[3] Her doctoral work focused on the design and synthesis of organic macromolecules. She examined the structure–property relationships of these macromolecules in next generation electronic devices, including organic field-effect transistors, organic photovoltaics and light-emitting diodes. She investigated how charge carriers and excitons are confined in 0D and 1D nanostructures.[4] This included benzobisthiazole-thiophene copolymers, which can be used for OFETs and OPVs.[5] She worked on oligothiophene-functionalised naphthalene dimide nanowires that can form in solution.[6][7] Whilst at the University of Washington she developed electron-transport materials for efficient blue phosphorescent OLEDs, using FIrpic and oligoquinolines.[8]
Ahmed joined Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral fellow with Timothy M. Swager.[9][10] She was a Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Scholar between 2011 and 2013.[11][12] She developed a platform that used polymer nanoparticles for in vivo imaging.[4] She won the Gordon Research Conferences Carl Storm Award in 2013 and a graduate award at the MIT Polymer Day in 2014.[11]
Research
editEgap joined Emory University in 2014. At the same time she held a joint position at Georgia Institute of Technology at the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. She has explored the polymer chemical properties that can impact their ability to self-assemble.
She won the 2015 Thieme Publishers Chemistry Award.[13] In 2016 she was named by Chemical & Engineering News as a Must See at the American Chemical Society national meeting.[14] She presented her work on ways to align one-dimensional polymer nanowires.[15] She was awarded a National Science Foundation award to explore open-shell conjugated oligomers and polymers.[16][17] The polymer backbone units incorporate polythiophene and quinoidal units.[16] She explored how ultra-fast transient absorption spectroscopy and scanning probe microscopy can be used to characterise the systems.[16] She is interested in spin-polarisation and spin-exchange.[16] She ran an eight-week summer program for students from historically black colleges and universities to take part in research.[16]
Egap was one of the 2017 Emerging Investigators in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C.[18] She demonstrated how near-infrared emitting triblock copolymers could be incorporated into an oligo(ethylene glycol) core for targeted drug delivery.[19] The core-shell nanoparticles can be used to target folate receptor cancer cells.[19] In 2017 she moved to Rice University.[20] She explored how to synthesise functional polymers using photosensitive quantum dots as a catalyst.[21][22] The technique is known as photo-controlled atom transfer radical polymerization and could replace the current catalysts used to synthesise block copolymers and methacrylates.[23][21] In 2018 she was named as one of the American Chemical Society Polymer Materials Science Engineering (PMSE) Young Investigator award prize.[24]
References
edit- ^ a b "Eilaf Egap aims to inspire | Materials Science and NanoEngineering | Rice University". msne.rice.edu. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
- ^ "Eventful: MSNE Seminar Series - "Molecular and Nanostructure Engineering of Polymer Semiconductors for Electronic and Optoelectronic Applications" (450/451/500)". Eventful. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
- ^ "Engineering hires two molecular nanotechnology faculty | Rice Engineering | Rice University". engineering.rice.edu. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
- ^ a b "Dr. Eilaf Ahmed | Georgia Tech Chemistry & Biochemistry". www.chemistry.gatech.edu. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
- ^ Ahmed, Eilaf; Kim, Felix S.; Xin, Hao; Jenekhe, Samson A. (2009-11-24). "Benzobisthiazole−Thiophene Copolymer Semiconductors: Synthesis, Enhanced Stability, Field-Effect Transistors, and Efficient Solar Cells". Macromolecules. 42 (22): 8615–8618. Bibcode:2009MaMol..42.8615A. doi:10.1021/ma9015278. ISSN 0024-9297.
- ^ Jenekhe, Samson A.; Ahmed, Eilaf; Ren, Guoqiang (2012-11-06). "Nanowires of oligothiophene-functionalized naphthalene diimides: self assembly, morphology, and all-nanowire bulk heterojunction solar cells". Journal of Materials Chemistry. 22 (46): 24373–24379. doi:10.1039/C2JM33787H. ISSN 1364-5501.
- ^ Ahmed, Eilaf; Ren, Guoqiang; Kim, Felix S.; Hollenbeck, Emily C.; Jenekhe, Samson A. (2011-09-30). "Design of New Electron Acceptor Materials for Organic Photovoltaics: Synthesis, Electron Transport, Photophysics, and Photovoltaic Properties of Oligothiophene-Functionalized Naphthalene Diimides". Chemistry of Materials. 23 (20): 4563–4577. doi:10.1021/cm2019668.
- ^ Ahmed, Eilaf; Earmme, Taeshik; Jenekhe, Samson A. (2011-10-21). "New Solution-Processable Electron Transport Materials for Highly Efficient Blue Phosphorescent OLEDs". Advanced Functional Materials. 21 (20): 3889–3899. doi:10.1002/adfm.201100848. ISSN 1616-3028. S2CID 96897448.
- ^ "Eilaf Egap | Materials Science and NanoEngineering | Rice University". msne.rice.edu. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
- ^ "Alumni | The Swager Group". swagergroup.mit.edu. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
- ^ a b "Eilaf Ahmed, Chemistry – Martin Luther King Jr. Scholars". Retrieved 2018-12-05.
- ^ "MIT welcomes six new MLK visiting professors and scholars". MIT News. 7 November 2012. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
- ^ "Eilaf Ahmed receives Thieme Chemistry Journal Award – The Lab Report". Retrieved 2018-12-05.
- ^ "Eilaf Egap is Named "Must-see" Presenter at the Upcoming ACS Meeting in Philadelphia – The Lab Report". Retrieved 2018-12-05.
- ^ Chang, Mincheol; Su, Zhe; Egap, Eilaf (2016-12-27). "Alignment and Charge Transport of One-Dimensional Conjugated Polymer Nanowires in Insulating Polymer Blends". Macromolecules. 49 (24): 9449–9456. Bibcode:2016MaMol..49.9449C. doi:10.1021/acs.macromol.6b01721. ISSN 0024-9297.
- ^ a b c d e "NSF Award Search: Award#1710225 - Design, Synthesis, and Properties of Open-Shell Organic Semiconductors". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
- ^ Egap, Eilaf; Huang, Yiming (August 2018). "Open-shell organic semiconductors: an emerging class of materials with novel properties". Polymer Journal. 50 (8): 603–614. doi:10.1038/s41428-018-0070-6. ISSN 1349-0540. S2CID 102939297.
- ^ "Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators Home". pubs.rsc.org. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
- ^ a b Egap, Eilaf; Chen, Zhuo (Georgia); Pollard, Alyssa C.; Wang, Dongsheng; Huang, Yiming; Zhang, Jiahui (2017-06-15). "Triblock near-infrared fluorescent polymer semiconductor nanoparticles for targeted imaging". Journal of Materials Chemistry C. 5 (23): 5685–5692. doi:10.1039/C7TC00632B. ISSN 2050-7534.
- ^ "Eilaf Egap – The Egap Lab". Retrieved 2018-12-05.
- ^ a b "Quantum dots display promise for polymers". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
- ^ Huang, Yiming; Zhu, Yifan; Egap, Eilaf (2018-02-20). "Semiconductor Quantum Dots as Photocatalysts for Controlled Light-Mediated Radical Polymerization". ACS Macro Letters. 7 (2): 184–189. doi:10.1021/acsmacrolett.7b00968. PMID 35610890.
- ^ "Scientists simplify process to make polymers with light-triggered nanoparticles". phys.org. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
- ^ "Egap named 2018 PMSE Young Investigator | Materials Science and NanoEngineering | Rice University". msne.rice.edu. Retrieved 2018-12-05.