NALAM RESEARCH GROUP
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Department of Materials Design and Innovation
University at Buffalo, NY
The research in the lab focuses on understanding forces at nanoscales to develop novel and functional materials in the fields of tribology, biomedicine, and environmental engineering. A better understanding of the structure-mechanical property relations is needed to develop reliable and system-compatible materials.
The current research directions in the group are
Nanotribology of 2D Materials in Liquids
Machine Learning Methods for Understanding Interfacial Phenomena
Membrane Design and Mechanics
Advancing Per- and polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) adsorption and Sorbent Design
Open PhD Positions are currently Available!
Project Title: Nanoconfinement behavior of liquids at 2D Materials interfaces
Contact: prathima@buffalo.edu
For more details: Click here
Entrapment of water underneath a single - layered graphene layer
Indentation of live cell using colloid probe AFM
Topography image of lipid bilayer on silica substrate
Roughness on a colloid probe
Clustered lipid and vesicles on a glass surface
Schematic of nanomechanical indentation on hydrogels using AFM
Group News:
08/2024: Dr. Nalam presented an Invited Talk at ACS Fall 2024: 2D Materials & Interfaces: Theory, Fundamentals & Applications05/2024: Dr. 05/2024: Nalam and group have initiated and held the first STLE educational course on AI/ML in Tribology.
https://www.stle.org/AnnualMeeting/Program/Education_Courses/AnnualMeeting/Education/Courses.aspx
05/2024: Mruganka Parasnis has sucessfully defended her Ph.D. on "Harnessing Dry Mycelium-Based Microporous Membranes for Lead Remediation: Exploring Design Strategies and Mechanistic Insights". Congratulations Dr. Parasnis!
03/2024: Dr. Nalam takes the position of Associate Professor at the Univeristy at Buffalo
08/2023: Dr. Nalam presented an Invited talk at the ACS Fall Symposium in Honor of Prof. Nicholas D. Spencer
08/2023: Tashfia has successfully defended her Ph.D. on "Exploring Polyamide Durability and PFAS Sorption: Probing Solution-Surface Interactions using AFM and QCM-D". Congratulations Dr. Mohona!
06/2023: Dr. Nalam received NSF CAREER AWARD, Understanding 2D confinement-driven phase transitions of non-polar liquids. NSF Organization: DMR CMP
05/2023: Dr. Nalam received the STLE Early Career Award
07/2022: Dr. Nalam presented an Invited talk at the GRC Tribology: Understanding Sliding Interfaces to Master Tribological Systems Across Length Scales
12/2021: Behnoosh successfully defended her Ph.D. Congratulations Dr. Baboukani!
10/2021: Awarded U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Lead Technical Studies Award to test the efficacy of dried mycelium - the root structure of mushrooms to remove lead from Buffalo Soil.
09/2021: Selected as early career editorial board member for tribology letters, Springer, Nature.
https://www.springer.com/journal/11249/editors
10/2020: A novel pedagogical framework for materials science with data science and informatics.
07/2020: Cutting edge in Tribology: Designing lubricants by artificial intelligence.
05/2020: Awarded SUNY Research Seed Grant for the development of Fungal-based, sedimentation-assisted plasma separators for isolation of antibodies for the viral treatment.
01/2020: Invited talk at the International Nanotribology Forum (INF), Thailand
04/2019: Congratulations to Behnoosh for winning second place in the SEAS 2019 Graduate Poster Competition.
08/2018: Awarded Center for Material Informatics Grant for the Development of QSPRs for Mycelium Membranes.
02/2017: Started NFL Lab at UB.
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We are here
Department of Materials Design and Innovation
University at Buffalo
The State University of New York
Department of Materials Design and Innovation, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University at Buffalo, Rm 128, Bell Hall, Buffalo, NY, 14260