39th Annual SCI Summer Research Colloquium
Wednesday, July 30th, 2025
Duncan Hall, Martel Hall | Rice University
Registration is now closed.
To register, see below.
The Smalley-Curl Institute Summer Research Colloquium began in 1986 as the RQI Colloquium and has been held in August of each year. The purpose of the SCI Summer Research Colloquium is to provide undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers working at Rice with an opportunity to present their most recent work.
Presentations (either talks or posters) are formal, as in professional international conferences. However, the audience, consisting of Rice students and faculty members, as well as R&D representatives from local companies, is informal and friendly, which makes the Colloquium a great occasion for presenters to hone their communication skills.
(Note: Postdocs and graduate students can also register as judges for the undergraduate poster session.)
Deadline to register
- to be an oral presenter has now passed (July 1, 2025, midnight). (Note: only graduate students and postdocs are eligible to be oral presenters.)
- to be a poster presenter has now passed (July 11, 2025, midnight)
Poster Dimensions
No larger than 36" x 48" (3' x 4'), preferably less than 4 feet across.
Directions and Parking
Please click HERE for directions to Martel Hall and parking information.
Keynote Speaker
Trustee Professor, Materials Science and NanoEngineering Chair, Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering
An internationally recognized engineer and scientist, Dr. Lozano specializes in carbon nanofiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites and scalable nanomanufacturing. Her groundbreaking work has advanced the development of lightweight, high-performance materials for a wide range of industrial and technological applications.
Sponsors
Program
Please click HERE for the program.
Agenda
8:00 am Breakfast and registration (Martel Hall)
8:25 am Introductory remarks (McMurtry Auditorium)
Keynote
8:30 - 9:00 am Professor Karen Lozano (Trustee Professor and Chair of Materials Science and NanoEngineering Department, Rice University), "Engineering the Future: The Role of Nanofibers in Innovation and Societal Impact"
Oral Session A (McMurtry Auditorium)
Quantum Platforms and Strong Light-Matter Interactions
Session Chair: Adam Johnston (APGSA Officer, Chen Lab, APP/ECE)
9:00 - 9:12 am Visal So (PHYA, Pagano Research Group), "Quantum Simulation of Charge and Exciton Transfer in Multi-mode Models using Engineered Reservoirs"
9:12 - 9:24 am Yu-En Wong (APP/ECE, Chen Lab), "Cavity-assisted Single-shot T center Spin Readout"
9:24 - 9:36am Elijah Kritzell (APP/ECE, Kono-Alabastri Lab), "Are Dicke Superradiant Phase Transitions Possible in Zeeman Polaritons in the Ultrastrong Coupling Regime?"
9:36 - 9:48 am Abhishek Menon (PHYA, Pagano Research Group), "Towards Simulation of Frenkel-exciton models with Long-Range Interactions using Trapped Ions"
9:48 - 10:00 am Wen-Hua Wu (APP/ECE, Kono Lab), "Non-adiabatic Landau-Zener Transition in the Ultrastrong-Coupling Regime"
COFFEE BREAK
10:00 - 10:30 am
Oral Session B (McMurtry Auditorium)
Chiral Light, Plasmonics, and Topological Enhancement of Optical Phenomena
Session Chair: Elijah Kritzell (APGSA Officer, Kono-Alabastri Lab, APP/ECE)
10:30 - 10:42 am Shusen Liao (APP/PHYA, Natelson Lab), "Large Magnetic Field Dependent Electroluminescence in Diamagnetic Plasmonic Nanojunctions"
10:42 - 10:54 am Kiran Muralidhar Kulkarni (APP/ECE, Kono Lab), "Demonstration of Time-Reversal Symmetry Breaking in Chiral Terahertz Photonic-Crystal Cavities"
10:54 - 11:06 am Xielin Wang (APP/ECE, Huang Lab), "Topological surface-enhanced Raman scattering"
11:06 - 11:18 am Xinting Shuai (MSNE, Ajayan Lab), "Exciton Behavior of Moiré Quantum Dots on Stacking 1D/1D MoS2 Nanoribbons"
11:18 - 11:30 am Christian Jacobson (ECE, Halas Lab), "Aluminum Nanocrystals Form Voids Under Their Native Oxide"
Lunch and Undergraduate Poster Session (Martell Hall)
11:30 am Lunch begins
12:00 - 1:30 pm Poster Session
Oral Session C (McMurtry Auditorium)
Biointerfaces, Neurotechnologies, and Molecular Sensing
Session Chair: Mia Cano (APGSA Officer, Sokolov Lab, APP/TMC)
1:30 - 1:42 pm Alexis Wilkinson (BIOE, Richards-Kortum Lab), "SCD-RPA: a point-of-care friendly genetic test for diagnosing sickle cell disease from cheek swab samples"
1:42 - 1:54 pm Weinan Wang (APP/ECE, Xie Lab), "A Precision Robotic System for Minimally Invasive, Large-Scale, Parallel Implantation of Flexible Neural Probes"
1:54 - 2:06 pm Viraj Ghosh (BIOE, Vlassakis Lab), "Using Topographic Biomolecule Nanopatterning for Single-Molecule Oncoprotein/DNA Analysis"
2:06 - 2:18 pm Keefer Boone (BIOE, Reinhart-King Lab), "Simplifying Live Intracellular Metabolic Quantification"
2:18 - 2:30 pm Ravindra Saxena (APP/CHBE, Verduzco Research Group), "Modular biosensing with OECTs to amplify enzymatic and microbial fuel cells"
COFFEE BREAK
2:30 - 3:00 pm
Oral Session D (McMurtry Auditorium)
Nanomaterials and Thermal Technologies for Resource Recovery and Sustainability
Session Chair: John Le (APGSA Officer, Martin Lab, APP/MSNE)
3:00 - 3:12 pm William Schmid (ECE, Alabastri Lab), "Fully Decentralized Solar Thermal Desalination: Challenges and Pathways Revealed by Generalized Positive Feedback Model"
3:12 - 3:24pm Qian Ye (PHYA, Alabastri Lab), "Electron-Phonon Temperature Inversion in Nanostructures under Pulsed Photoexcitation"
3:24 - 3:36 pm Juan Donoso (CHBE, Catalysis and Nanomaterials, Rice WATER Institute, Wong Lab), "Pilot-scale Boron Nitride Photocatalytic Mineralization of PFAS"
3:36 - 3:48 pm Gautam Chandrasekhar (MSNE, Ajayan Lab), "Microwave Plasma-Assisted Efficient Extraction of Critical Minerals from Lithium-ion Battery Waste"
3:48 - 4:00 pm Yi Cheng (CHEM, Tour Lab), "High-temperature electrothermal remediation of multipollutant soils"
Graduate Student, Postdoc, and TWIG Poster Session (Martell Hall)
4:00 pm Bar opens, and reception begins (appetizers)
4:15 - 6:00 pm Poster Session
Dinner and Award Ceremony (Martel Hall)
6:00 - 7:00 pm
Awards
ORAL PRESENTATIONS
Platinum Award: Will Schmid, Alabastri Lab, ECE
Gold Award: Alexis Wilkinson, Richards-Kortum Lab, BIOE
Bronze Award: Weinan Wang, Xie Lab, APP/ECE
POSTERS - GRADUATE
Platinum Award: Carolyn Graverson, Jones Lab, CHEM
Gold Award: Marco Reis, Sawakuchi Lab, Biosciences
Silver Award: Catherine Fabiano, Halos Lab, CHEM
Bronze Award: Gabriella Gagliano, Gustavsson Lab, APP/CHEM
People's Choice: Abraham Ome, Halas Lab, APP/ECE
POSTER - UNDERGRADUATE
Best Undergraduate Award: Simon King, Ajayan Lab, MSNE
Runner Up: Tianmin Yang, Ajo-Franklin Lab, Biosciences
People's Choice: Siyu Dan, Dia Lab, PHYS
Program Committee
- Alessandro Alabastri (ECE), Program Chair
- Songtao Chen (ECE)
- Ivan Coluzza (CHEM)
- Kaden Hazzard (PHYA)
- Junichiro Kono (ECE), Program Co-Chair
- HaeYeon Lee (MSNE)
- Xuedan Ma (MSNE)
- Doug Natelson (PHYA)
- Geoff Wehmeyer (MECH)
- Yonglong Xie (PHYA)
- Hanyu Zhu (MSNE)
Event Archive
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