NanoEngineering
Professor
How do nanomaterials interact with their environment? Interfaces play a fundamental role in dictating the physical properties and emerging phenomena of low-dimensional materials such as nanowires, nanoparticles, and quantum dots. We are interested in the synthesis and surface chemistry of nanoscale materials, particularly colloidal systems that can be used to build functional assemblies using a bottom-up approach. Current research projects in our group include: (1) surface-enhanced Raman sensing (SERS) for chemical detection and wafer-scale metrology; (2) self-assembly of mesoscale materials; and (3) new nanoscale catalysts for CO2 reduction.
Bio
Dr. Tao is a Full Professor and Vice Chair of Education in the NanoEngineering Department at UC San Diego. She currently serves as the Deputy Director of the San Diego Nanotechnology Infrastructure, the co-Director of the Institute for Materials Discovery and Design, and Associate Editor of Materials Chemistry Frontiers. Her research interests lie in the discovery and development of new nanomaterials for plasmonics, where light is propagated, manipulated, and confined by nanocomponents that are smaller than the wavelength of light itself.