Professor Nikhil  Koratkar

After receiving his doctorate from the University of Maryland at College Park, Nikhil  Koratkar joined the faculty of the Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in January 2001 as an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2006 and to Full Professor in 2009.

Professor Koratkar is a winner of the NSF Career Award (2003), AHS Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Award (2004), RPI School of Engineering Excellence in Research Award (2004), RPI Early Career Award (2005) and the Electrochemical Society's SES Young Investigator Award (2009). He has published over 60 archival papers in top ranked journals including Nature, Nature Materials, Nano Letters, Advanced Materials, ACS Nano, Carbon and Small. His papers have been cited over 1000 times. Dr. Koratkar's group synthesizes a variety of nanoscale structures (graphene, graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes, metal and silicon nanostructures) using techniques such as chemical vapor deposition and oblique angle deposition. His research is focused on the study of these nanomaterials for energy and sustainability. The nexus between energy, sustainability and nanotechnology is an area that shows potential for great scientific and technological advances.  

Professor Jin Zhang

Professor Jin Zhang received his PhD from Peking University and Lanzhou University in 1997. After a two year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Leeds, UK, he returned to Peking University where he was appointed Associate Professor (2000) and promoted to Full Professor in 2006. His research focuses on the controlled synthesis and spectroscopic characterization of carbon nano-materials, including: controlling the structure of single-walled carbon nanotubes by controlling the synthesis process; selective synthesis of metallic vs semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes; Raman spectroscopic characterization of single-walled carbon  nanotubes and graphene; and the fabrication and applications of large arrays of carbon nanotubes. Dr. Zhang has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles.