Four 91探花 researchers have been named AAAS Fellows, according to . They are among 449 newly elected fellows from around the world, who are recognized for their 鈥渟cientifically and socially distinguished achievements鈥� in science and engineering. New Fellows will receive an official certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin 鈥� representing science and engineering, respectively 鈥� to commemorate their election.

A tradition dating back to 1874, election as an AAAS Fellow is a lifetime honor. AAAS Fellows play a crucial role in shaping public policy, advancing scientific research and influencing national and global perspectives on critical issues. Becoming a AAAS Fellow is among the most distinct honors within the scientific community, and those elevated to the rank have made distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. All fellows are expected to meet the commonly held standards of professional ethics and scientific integrity.

This year鈥檚 91探花AAAS fellows are:

, professor of biochemistry at the 91探花School of Medicine and the director of the 91探花Medicine Institute for Protein Design, was recognized for his groundbreaking work in computational protein design. Baker鈥檚 early work was in predicting how chains of chemicals fold into molecular structures that determine protein functions. He went on to design new proteins from scratch to carry out tasks in medicine, technology and sustainability. His team is developing vaccines, targeted drug delivery for cancer, enzymes to break down environmental pollutants and innovative biomaterials, among other endeavors. Baker received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his scientific achievements to benefit humankind. He has also been awarded the Overton Prize in computational biology, Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology, Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences.

, professor and chair of neurobiology and biophysics at the 91探花School of Medicine, was honored for her distinguished contributions to cognitive and systems neuroscience. Buffalo, who is the Wayne E. Crill Endowed Professor, is particularly noted for her pioneering research on the neural basis of remembering and learning, and for advancing translational research into broader insights on human brain function. She studies the relationship between eye movements and activity in the hippocampus and other nearby brain regions involved in forming memories, navigating and recalling the emotional context of past events. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, which presented her with the Troland Award for innovative, multidisciplinary studies. She also helps train postdoctoral scholars at the 91探花Medicine Institute for Translational Immunology.

, professor and chair of genome sciences at the 91探花School of Medicine, was noted for her distinguished contributions to the fields of genetics and genomics. She is known for advancing knowledge of the mechanisms underlying molecular evolution and genetic variation in yeasts and in humans. Her lab develops new tools to study mutations and their consequences, genome structure, gene interactions, and the evolution of gene expression. She has a longstanding interest in how copy number variations 鈥� how many times a particular segment of DNA repeats 鈥� affect adaptation, and how these variations arise. Dunham applies her genomics methods to diverse topics, including the biology of aging and the emergence of multi-drug antibiotic resistance. Dunham is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University and was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Scholar.

, 91探花professor of chemistry, was honored for distinguished contributions to the theoretical understanding of nanoscale light-matter interactions, particularly for the design and interpretation of advanced spectroscopies that use electrons and light to probe material excitations. Masiello is an applied physicist whose research focuses on creating simple-yet-rich theoretical models that bring insight and understanding to observations spanning from quantum materials to nanophotonics. Masiello was hired as an assistant professor at the 91探花in 2010. He is a faculty member in both the Molecular & Engineering Sciences Institute and the Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems, and is also an adjunct professor of applied mathematics and of materials science and engineering. Masiello’s honors include receiving an NSF CAREER Award and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, called PECASE, awarded by President Obama at the White House.

In 1961, atomic physicist theorized that electrons harbor another and unexpected talent: They can interfere with themselves as they simultaneously take two different quantum-mechanical paths. On one path, they jump within the atom between discrete energy states. On the other path, they jump off the atom into the continuum of free space. Fano after studying the electronic spectrum of helium gas excited by an electron beam. According to Fano鈥檚 theory, the electrons in the helium atoms were moving through two types of energy transitions, one discrete and the other continuous, which resulted in destructive interference through their synchronized mixing.

Though it has been almost 60 years since Fano published his theoretical explanation 鈥� now known as Fano interference 鈥� scientists have struggled to observe this effect at the nanoscale using an electron microscope. A team led by scientists from the 91探花 and the University of Notre Dame used recent advances in electron microscopy to observe Fano interferences directly in a pair of metallic nanoparticles, according to a published Oct. 21 in Physical Review Letters and highlighted by the journal鈥檚 editors.

“Fano described a complicated 鈥� and even counterintuitive 鈥� type of energy transfer that can occur in these systems,鈥� said co-corresponding author , a 91探花professor of chemistry and faculty member in both the and the . 鈥淚t鈥檚 like having two children on neighboring swings that are weakly coupled to each other: You push one child, but that swing isn鈥檛 the one that moves. Instead, the other child鈥檚 swing moves due to this interference. It鈥檚 a one-way energy transfer.鈥�

Masiello, a theoretician, teamed up with co-corresponding author and experimentalist , a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame, to work on Fano interferences in electron microscopy. In a 2013 in ACS Nano, the two of them, along with members of Masiello鈥檚 group at the UW, theorized that they could trigger Fano interferences in certain types of plasmonic nanostuctures. These are experimentally testable systems 鈥� usually consisting of silver or gold or similar coinage metals 鈥� in which electrons can become easily mobilized and 鈥渆xcited鈥� in response to light or an electron beam.

Masiello and Camden believed it would be possible to design and construct a system that would exhibit Fano interferences using nanoscale plasmonic components. But, creating this effect would require an extremely precise electron beam, in which the electrons all have approximately the same kinetic energy. The researchers teamed up with , a scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Oak Ridge hosts an advanced electron microscopy facility, including the monochromated aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope that the team would need.

鈥淭his is the Lamborghini of electron microscopes, and it represents a very recent and sophisticated advancement in electron microscopy,鈥� said Masiello. 鈥淭his experiment would not have been possible even several years ago.鈥�

But designing and manufacturing the right plasmonic system was also a challenge for the team.

鈥淭he question of, 鈥楥ould we see this Fano interference in electron microscopy?鈥� was much more complicated than we expected,鈥� said Camden. 鈥淓arly on we realized the ideas our team came up with weren鈥檛 working. But eventually, through trial and error, we got it right.鈥�

Masiello鈥檚 team works on both the theory of plasmons and the theory of electron microscopy. They used analytical models of the behavior of plasmonic systems to design the physical layout, as well as interpret the spectrum, of an all-plasmonic system. This system would encode the interference effect that the team sought on the microscope鈥檚 scattered electrons. First author and 91探花physics doctoral student Kevin Smith determined that a 鈥済olden lollipop鈥� was optimal. The system he designed consists of a thin, gold disc 鈥� just 650 nanometers in diameter 鈥� sitting next to, but not touching, a gold nanorod just 5,000 nanometers long. For reference, about 20 of those nanorods 鈥� lined up end-to-end 鈥� would equal the thickness of a piece of paper.

According to Smith鈥檚 theoretical design and mathematical analysis, an electron beam directed just outside of the golden disc of the lollipop would trigger the telltale signs of a Fano interference: Electrons within the faraway rod would begin to oscillate, driven only through the disc.

鈥淭hat is precisely what we observed when our collaborators at Oak Ridge tested the system,鈥� said Smith.

The team鈥檚 success not only demonstrates that it is possible to excite Fano interferences directly in a plasmonic system using an electron beam. It also provides new theoretical frameworks and models for working with sophisticated electron microscopes, like the facilities present at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

鈥淭here is an exciting level of precision that is possible with these types of electron microscopes,鈥� said Masiello. 鈥淚t opens the door to more experiments like this 鈥� combining atom-scale spatial resolution with high spectral resolution from the visible spectrum out to the far infrared.鈥�

Co-authors are Agust Olafsson and Xuan Hu at the University of Notre Dame, Steven Quillin at the 91探花Department of Chemistry, and Robyn Collette at the University of Tennessee and Philip Rack at the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the 91探花, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Tennessee. Experiments were conducted in part at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, a Department of Energy Office of Science facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

For more information, contact Masiello at masiello@uw.edu.

At human scale, controlling temperature is a straightforward concept. Turtles sun themselves to keep warm. To cool a pie fresh from the oven, place it on a room-temperature countertop.

At the nanoscale 鈥� at distances less than 1/100th the width of the thinnest human hair 鈥� controlling temperature is much more difficult. Nanoscale distances are so small that objects easily become thermally coupled: If one object heats up to a certain temperature, so does its neighbor.

When scientists use a beam of light as that heat source, there is an additional challenge: Thanks to heat diffusion, materials in the beam path heat up to approximately the same temperature, making it difficult to manipulate the thermal profiles of objects within the beam. Scientists have never been able to use light alone to actively shape and control thermal landscapes at the nanoscale.

At least, not until now.

In a published online July 30 by the journal , a team of researchers reports that they have designed and tested an experimental system that uses a near-infrared laser to actively heat two gold nanorod antennae 鈥� metal rods designed and built at the nanoscale 鈥� to different temperatures. The nanorods are so close together that they are both electromagnetically and thermally coupled. Yet the team, led by researchers at the 91探花, Rice University and Temple University, measured temperature differences between the rods as high as 20 degrees Celsius. By simply changing the wavelength of the laser, they could also change which nanorod was cooler and which was warmer, even though the rods were made of the same material.

“If you put two similar objects next to each other on a table, ordinarily you would expect them to be at the same temperature. The same is true at the nanoscale,” said lead corresponding author , a 91探花professor of chemistry and faculty member in both the and the . “Here, we can expose two coupled objects of the same material composition to the same beam, and one of those objects will be warmer than the other.”

Masiello’s team performed the theoretical modeling to design this system. He partnered with co-corresponding authors , a professor of both chemistry and electrical and computer engineering at Rice University, and , an associate professor of chemistry at Temple University, to build and test it.

Their system consisted of two nanorods made of gold 鈥� one 150 nanometers long and the other 250 nanometers long, or about 100 times thinner than the thinnest human hair. The researchers placed the nanorods close together, end to end on a glass slide surrounded by glycerol.

They chose gold for a specific reason. In response to sources of energy like a near-infrared laser, electrons within gold can “oscillate” easily. These electronic oscillations, or surface plasmon resonances, efficiently convert light to heat. Though both nanorods were made of gold, their differing size-dependent plasmonic polarizations meant that they had different patterns of electron oscillations. Masiello’s team calculated that, if the nanorod plasmons oscillated with either the same or opposite phases, they could reach different temperatures 鈥� countering the effects of thermal diffusion.

Link’s and Willets’ groups designed the experimental system and tested it by shining a near-infrared laser on the nanorods. They studied the beam’s effect at two wavelengths 鈥� one for oscillating the nanorod plasmons with the same phase, another for the opposite phase.

The team could not directly measure the temperature of each nanorod at the nanoscale. Instead, they collected data on how the heated nanorods and surrounding glycerol scattered photons from a separate beam of green light.聽 Masiello’s team analyzed those data and discovered that the nanorods refracted photons from the green beam differently due to nanoscale differences in temperature between the nanorods.

“This indirect measurement indicated that the nanorods had been heated to different temperatures, even though they were exposed to the same near-infrared beam and were close enough to be thermally coupled,” said co-lead author Claire West, a 91探花doctoral candidate in the Department of Chemistry.

The team also found that, by changing the wavelength of near-infrared light, they could change which nanorod 鈥� short or long 鈥� heated up more. The laser could essentially act as a tunable “switch,” changing the wavelength to alter which nanorod was hotter. The temperature differences between the nanorods also varied based on their distance apart, but reached as high as 20 degrees Celsius above room temperature.

The team’s findings have a range of applications based on controlling temperature at the nanoscale. For example, scientists could design materials that photo-thermally control chemical reactions with nanoscale precision, or temperature-triggered microfluidic channels for filtering tiny biological molecules.

The researchers are working to design and test more complex systems, such as clusters and arrays of nanorods. These require more intricate modeling and calculations. But given the progress to date, Masiello is optimistic that this unique partnership between theoretical and experimental research groups will continue to make progress.

“It was a team effort, and the results were years in the making, but it worked,” said Masiello.

West’s co-lead authors on the paper are Ujjal Bhattacharjee, a former researcher at Rice University now at the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, and Seyyed Ali Hosseini Jebeli, a researcher at Rich University. Co-authors are Harrison Goldwyn and Elliot Beutler, both doctoral students in the 91探花Department of Chemistry; Xiang-Tian Kong and Zhongwei Hu, both research associates in the 91探花Department of Chemistry; and , a former research scientist at Rice, now an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Robert A. Welch Foundation, and the 91探花.

###

For more information, contact Masiello at 206-543-5579 or masiello@uw.edu.

Grant numbers: CHE-1727092, CHE1664684, CHE-1727122, CHE-1728340, C-1664.

Three 91探花 professors聽have received the 2016 , the highest honor given by the U.S. government to early career scientists and engineers.

David Masiello, an assistant professor of chemistry and adjunct assistant professor of applied mathematics; Shwetak Patel, the Washington Research Foundation Entrepreneurship Endowed Professor in Computer Science and Engineering and Electrical Engineering; and Luke Zettlemoyer, associate professor of computer science and engineering, were among the 105 recipients announced by the White House Thursday.

Awardees are selected for their “pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and their commitment to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education or community outreach,” according to a White House release. The awards will be presented at a White House ceremony, and each recipient will receive up to five years of federal research funding.

was nominated by the for “his cutting-edge research in the emerging field of theoretical molecular nanophotonics, and for his comprehensive educational and outreach programs including an exemplary focus on enhancing the scientific communication abilities of young researchers.” Masiello’s builds theoretical and computational tools to understand the optical, magnetic, electronic, and thermal properties of nanoscale materials.

, a nationally recognized expert in sensor systems research who directs the UW鈥檚聽 and focuses on sensing systems, energy and water sensing, mobile health and developing new interaction technologies, was also nominated by the . He was cited for “inventing low-cost, easy-to-deploy sensor systems that leverage existing infrastructures to enable users to track household energy consumption and make the buildings we live in more responsive to our needs.”

鈥檚 research explores the intersection of natural language processing, machine learning and decision making under uncertainty 鈥� with a particular emphasis on designing learning algorithms for recovering representations of the meaning of natural language text. In his nomination from the U.S. Department of Defense, the agency cited “his outstanding research accomplishments in computational semantics, in particular for innovative new machine-learning approaches for problems in natural language understanding” that “have the potential to completely revolutionize how we retrieve information and interact with computers.”

Additionally, , operations research analyst with the聽Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle and an affiliate professor in the UW’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, is also a recipient of the early career award.

Thorson, who teaches an upper-level fisheries course, conducts research on spatial variation in fish population density and productivity, and spatio-temporal dynamics for marine ecosystems including the potential impacts of climate change. He received his doctorate from the UW, where he worked with professor and school director . Thorson was nominated for the award by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Twelve federal departments or agencies nominate young scientists and engineers from across the country whose “early accomplishments show the greatest promise for assuring America鈥檚 preeminence in science and engineering and contributing to the awarding agencies’ missions.” The final awards, first established by President Bill Clinton in 1996, are coordinated by the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President.

鈥淭hese early-career scientists are leading the way in our efforts to confront and understand challenges from climate change to our health and wellness,鈥� President Barack Obama said in a statement. 鈥淲e congratulate these accomplished individuals and encourage them to continue to serve as an example of the incredible promise and ingenuity of the American people.鈥�