Deji Akinwande
教授
The University of Texas – Austin, TX, USA
教育：
- Msc/Bsc, Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics, Case Western Reserve University, 2010
- Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, 2009
工作重点：
Akinwande is focused on 2D materials and devices. This is a very multidisciplinary research covering materials science, physics, and engineering applications. As such, he has students and researchers with different technical backgrounds working with him on these topics in order to make significant progress in bringing ideas towards practical applications.
给学生的建议：
Pursue innovation and critical thinking.
链接：
面试：
您的工作最适合应用于纳米技术中的哪些技术领域？
Akinwande:
- 纳米电子学
- 纳米传感器和纳米执行器
- 纳米材料
- 纳米制造
问：您什么时候第一次发现自己的职业道路集中在纳米技术上？
Akinwande: When I started graduate school, I realized the field was very young and started exploring carbon nanotube materials. I was particularly looking for a nascent topic and after 1year of reading about different emerging frontiers, I decided to focus on CNTs especially for radio-frequency applications because it was an area I had some prior experience.
问：您目前正在研究哪些纳米技术应用？
Akinwande: I am working on several applications including wearable tattoo sensors, flexible electronics, and memory devices for information storage and computing. Our main driver is to explore near-term important applications of nanomaterials such as graphene and related atomic sheets. These aforementioned applications are both very important from a technology point of view and might also be commercializable in a reasonable timeframe compared to some more fundamental applications that might need decades to develop.
问：从事纳米技术工作最有意义的事情是什么？
Akinwande: The field is very vast with ample room for innovation and creativity to bring an idea from concept towards practical applications.
问：您能举一个例子来说明您所做的事情如何对世界产生了积极的影响吗？
Akinwande: We wrote the first textbook on carbon nanotubes in 2011 and this book has been translated to other languages and is used in many institutions across the World to teach aspects of nanomaterials and nanotechnology.
问：您预计未来纳米技术的商业化将在哪些领域对世界产生最积极的影响？
Akinwande: The future is hard to predict. I expect nanotechnology will increasingly impact many aspects of society in due time. We already see commercial examples in energy devices such as batteries, thermal management packages in smart phones, and a variety of sensors including diagnostic testing for health.
问：您认为迄今为止纳米技术对世界产生的最大影响是什么？
Akinwande: Nanotechnology has given us modern semiconductor technology which has benefited virtually all industries and society across the World. From electronic gadgets to mobile health. This was enabled by developing a variety of techniques to make smaller features and components and integrate them on a semiconductor wafer. A lot of technical breakthroughs and invention went into the science and engineering of making things very small (i.e. nano-size), much smaller than a hair strand. This is an example of how nanotechnology has advanced the predominant semiconductor electronics industry.
问：过去十年，纳米技术走出了实验室，对社会产生了真正的影响。您是否参与过任何有助于纳米技术商业化并产生新产品或新工艺的努力？
Akinwande: Our earlier research on graphene growth and transfer has become commercial process technology. This research involved growing graphene, which is a single sheet of carbon atoms on a substrate of silicon that is suitable for semiconductor technology. With graphene on silicon, advanced electronics can be made that combines the outstanding properties of both materials to realize electronic gadgets superior to what can be achieved with just one of the materials.
问：大学里的培训对你的纳米技术工作有帮助吗？
Akinwande: Yes, it provided foundational understanding in the physical sciences and engineering. Math classes gave me strong quantitative skills in modeling and analysis that requires skills in calculus and statistics. Physics is good for the necessary understanding of thermodynamics, solid-state materials, and quantum mechanics. And electrical engineering classes are crucial for developing applications based on the unique characteristics of nanomaterials. These applications are what we broadly call nanotechnology.
问：如果必须重新来过，您还会专注于纳米技术应用吗？
Akinwande: Yes. Nanotechnology is a frontier field with a lot of room for innovation and as such, it is a very enjoyable field for discovery research.
问：如果高中生或大学生对纳米技术感兴趣，您会给他们什么建议以帮助他们做好担任这些角色的准备？
Akinwande: Pursue innovation and critical thinking. There are many challenges in the world from a technology point including the exponential power consumption of data centers, the need for mobile personalized healthcare, portable filtration for clean water, etc. All these global challenges require innovative ideas and new ways of looking at problems.
