Eilaf Egap Explained

Eilaf Egap
Workplaces:Emory University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Rice University
Alma Mater:University of Washington
Stony Brook University
Thesis Title:New Organic Semiconductors for Electronics and Optoelectronics
Thesis Year:2011
Doctoral Advisor:Samson Jenekhe

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.

Early life and education

Egap 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. 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. She won the Gordon Research Conferences Carl Storm Award in 2013 and a graduate award at the MIT Polymer Day in 2014.

Research

Egap 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. She explored how ultra-fast transient absorption spectroscopy and scanning probe microscopy can be used to characterise the systems. She is interested in spin-polarisation and spin-exchange. She ran an eight-week summer program for students from historically black colleges and universities to take part in research.

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. 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]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Eilaf Egap aims to inspire Materials Science and NanoEngineering Rice University. msne.rice.edu. 2018-12-05.
  2. Web site: Eventful: MSNE Seminar Series - "Molecular and Nanostructure Engineering of Polymer Semiconductors for Electronic and Optoelectronic Applications" (450/451/500). Eventful. 2018-12-05.
  3. Web site: Engineering hires two molecular nanotechnology faculty Rice Engineering Rice University. engineering.rice.edu. 2018-12-05.
  4. Web site: Dr. Eilaf Ahmed Georgia Tech Chemistry & Biochemistry. www.chemistry.gatech.edu. 2018-12-05.
  5. 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. 10.1021/ma9015278. 0024-9297. 2009MaMol..42.8615A.
  6. 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. 10.1039/C2JM33787H. 1364-5501.
  7. 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. Ahmed. Eilaf. Ren. Guoqiang. 2011-09-30. 10.1021/cm2019668. Kim. Felix S.. Hollenbeck. Emily C.. Jenekhe. Samson A..
  8. 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. 10.1002/adfm.201100848. 96897448 . 1616-3028.
  9. Web site: Eilaf Egap Materials Science and NanoEngineering Rice University. msne.rice.edu. 2018-12-05.
  10. Web site: Alumni The Swager Group. swagergroup.mit.edu. 2018-12-05.
  11. Web site: Eilaf Ahmed, Chemistry – Martin Luther King Jr. Scholars. 2018-12-05.
  12. Web site: MIT welcomes six new MLK visiting professors and scholars. MIT News. 7 November 2012 . 2018-12-05.
  13. Web site: Eilaf Ahmed receives Thieme Chemistry Journal Award – The Lab Report. 2018-12-05.
  14. Web site: Eilaf Egap is Named "Must-see" Presenter at the Upcoming ACS Meeting in Philadelphia – The Lab Report. 2018-12-05.
  15. 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. 10.1021/acs.macromol.6b01721. 0024-9297. 2016MaMol..49.9449C.
  16. Web site: NSF Award Search: Award#1710225 - Design, Synthesis, and Properties of Open-Shell Organic Semiconductors. www.nsf.gov. 2018-12-05.
  17. Egap. Eilaf. Huang. Yiming. August 2018. Open-shell organic semiconductors: an emerging class of materials with novel properties. Polymer Journal. 50. 8. 603–614. 10.1038/s41428-018-0070-6. 102939297. 1349-0540.
  18. Web site: Journal of Materials Chemistry C Emerging Investigators Home. pubs.rsc.org. 2018-12-05.
  19. 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. 10.1039/C7TC00632B. 2050-7534.
  20. Web site: Eilaf Egap – The Egap Lab. 2018-12-05.
  21. Web site: Quantum dots display promise for polymers. EurekAlert!. 2018-12-05.
  22. 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. 10.1021/acsmacrolett.7b00968. 35610890 .
  23. Web site: Scientists simplify process to make polymers with light-triggered nanoparticles. phys.org. 2018-12-05.
  24. Web site: Egap named 2018 PMSE Young Investigator Materials Science and NanoEngineering Rice University. msne.rice.edu. 2018-12-05.