Suzanne Ahmed

About Professor Ahmed

Biography

Dr. Ahmed is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nanoscience at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Prior to joining JSNN, Suzanne was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University. She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Penn State University, her M.S. from the University of California, Berkeley, and her B.Sc. from the University of California, Riverside. Her research focuses on the study of propulsion, control, and application of low Reynolds number active matter systems.

Research

My research program focuses on the development of low Reynolds number, biomimetic, active matter. Nanoscale and microscale active matter systems commonly referred to as nanomotors, nanomachines, or nanorobots, have garnered considerable attention both for the fundamental understanding gained in inducing their propulsion and for their applications. These systems have wide-ranging applications in biomedicine, sensing, environmental remediation, and oil recovery. Our work focuses on designing and fabricating adaptive bioinspired active matter, developing novel propulsion strategies, and understanding motion within patterned and confined spaces.

Open Positions

Postdoctoral Fellow.  Apply here: https://spartantalent.uncg.edu/postings/23478.

Selected Publications

1. Afsari, T.; Nowlin, K.; Weissing, C.; Ahmed, S. Nanorobotic System with Fine Control over Multiple Modes of Motion. ACS Appl. Nano Mater. 2023, acsanm.3c04143. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsanm.3c04143.
2. Ahmed, S. and Perez-Mercader, J. Autonomous Low-Reynolds-Number Soft Robots with Structurally Encoded Motion and their Thermodynamic Efficiency. Langmuir 2021, 37, 8148–8156.
3. Sabrina, S.; Tasinkevych, M.; Ahmed, S.; Brooks, A. M.; Olvera de la Cruz, M.; Mallouk, T. E. and Bishop, K. J. M. Shape-directed micro-spinners powered by ultrasound. ACS Nano 2018,12, 2939-2947.
4. Ahmed, S.; Wang, W.; Bai, L.; Gentekos, D. T.; Hoyos, M. and Mallouk, T. E.  Density and shape effects in the acoustic propulsion of bimetallic nanorod motors. ACS Nano 2016, 10, 4763-4769.
5. Ahmed, S.; Gentekos, D. T.; Fink, C. and Mallouk, T. E. Dynamic self-assembly of nanowire motors into regular geometric multimers. ACS Nano 2014, 8, 11053-11060.
6. Ahmed, S.; Wang, W.; Mair, L. O.; Fraleigh, R. D.; Li, S.; Castro, L. A.; Hoyos, M.; Huang, T. J., and Mallouk, T. E. Steering acoustically propelled nanowire motors towards cells in a biologically compatible environment using magnetic fields. Langmuir 2013, 29, 16113-16118.
7. Wang, W.; Li, S.; Mair, L.; Ahmed, S.; Huang, T. J., and Mallouk, T. E. Acoustic propulsion of nanorod motors inside living cells. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 3201-3204.