Leading-Edge Research and Development > Research Profiles > Profiles Archive > CNSE undergraduate spends his summer ‘SURFing,’ gaining world-class research experience

CNSE undergraduate spends his summer ‘SURFing,’ gaining world-class research experience

Janiszewski working in the NIST cleanroom

CNSE undergraduate student Brian Janiszewski is “SURFing” this summer, but it has nothing to do with waves and everything to do with groundbreaking research.

Janiszewski is putting his world-class nanoscale engineering education at CNSE to work by honing his research skills through an internship with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

One of the pioneering students who started in CNSE’s undergraduate program as part of the first class in 2010, Janiszewski is participating in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program at NIST, which is designed to give students majoring in science, mathematics and engineering access to meaningful research opportunities at one of six NIST laboratories.

Chosen to intern at NIST’s Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST), Janiszewski began the program at the end of May. “My internship experience has been incredible so far,” says Janiszewski. “I am surrounded by intelligent and driven people, and am able to build on what I have already learned at CNSE.”

Janiszewski in the NIST cleanroom

For the duration of his internship, Janiszewski is spending five to six hours a day in the cleanroom working on chemical surface patterning. He is focusing on chemically modifying the surface of a substrate in patterns so that the substrates can be used in basic studies and practical engineering practices, such as microfluidics. Specifically, he is creating hydrophobic surfaces to make hydrophyllic “islands,” where things like nanocrystals and nanowires can be grown, and the surface examined to see how it acts and responds to different materials.

While this is Janiszewski’s first year as an intern in the SURF program, he has been able to jump right in. “My education at CNSE has been incredibly useful at NIST,” says Janiszewski. “I have already been exposed to the majority of the machines and processes that we are using, which allows me to delve deeper into my research and not be concerned about the general concepts.”

Janiszewski, who is advised by CNSE Associate Professor of Nanoengineering Michael Carpenter, will return to CNSE at the end of August to complete his B.S. in nanoscale engineering, with a concentration in emerging materials and device engineering.

Three other CNSE undergraduate students are also participating in the NIST SURF program: Michael Briggs, who is also advised by Professor Carpenter, and Pascal Garczynski and Leigh Lydecker, both advised by CNSE Professor of Nanoscience Robert Brainard.