Professor Minko searches for a 'super pill'
Merridith Smith
Issue date: 11/24/03 Section: Features
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Professor Sergiy Minko is a new addition to the chemistry department at Clarkson University; he has only been here for three months. Professor Minko joined us in 2003, coming from Germany but born in Lviv (Ukraine). He has been Senior Scientist, G. W. at Leibniz Institute for Polymer Research Dresden (Germany), Senior Scientist in Max at Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz (Germany), and Senior Scientist in CNRS at Institute Charles Sadron (Polymer Science) in Strasbourg (France). Now at Clarkson, he has been appointed as the Egon Matijevic Chaired Professor.
His field of study is Polymer Science and he has been involved with researching, defining, and experimenting with different polymers and materials in Nanoscience/Nanotechnology. I sat down with him one morning to discuss some of the research he is working on.
MS: What is your favorite research that you are doing right now, what are you most driven to answer?
Minko: My research field is Polymer colloid science, and interface science, which is strongly reactive to the Nanotechnologies and Nanoscience. The main scope of Nanotechnology/Nanoscience is the development of materials with an understanding of morphology properties, starting from the scale of single atoms and single molecules up to supramolecular structures, which exactly define the properties of materials.
MS: What does that involve?
Minko: First of all I use microscopy; in particular what I am using is atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). I use an instrument that allows us to study solid and soft matter on the scale of nanometers. That means that the size of molecules, in some cases, you can even get atomic resolution structures. I also use a method to kind of devise the surface properties symptoms of different optics.
MS: What are some of the hypothesis that you are working with?
Minko: The general hypothesis in Nanoscience and Nanontechnoloy is based on experience and figures the properties of materials at the level of single molecules and small arrogates of single molecules, as well as atoms, are very different from microscopic behavior. I try to apply this new knowledge and possibilities to develop devices, electronic devices, sensors and many other useful things. The second important thing connected to this area is the development of materials for biomedical materials application. What happens when living matter contacts with synthetic material? I help to solve which can or cannot destroy, or help to fix defects that are collecting in our organism.
His field of study is Polymer Science and he has been involved with researching, defining, and experimenting with different polymers and materials in Nanoscience/Nanotechnology. I sat down with him one morning to discuss some of the research he is working on.
MS: What is your favorite research that you are doing right now, what are you most driven to answer?
Minko: My research field is Polymer colloid science, and interface science, which is strongly reactive to the Nanotechnologies and Nanoscience. The main scope of Nanotechnology/Nanoscience is the development of materials with an understanding of morphology properties, starting from the scale of single atoms and single molecules up to supramolecular structures, which exactly define the properties of materials.
MS: What does that involve?
Minko: First of all I use microscopy; in particular what I am using is atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). I use an instrument that allows us to study solid and soft matter on the scale of nanometers. That means that the size of molecules, in some cases, you can even get atomic resolution structures. I also use a method to kind of devise the surface properties symptoms of different optics.
MS: What are some of the hypothesis that you are working with?
Minko: The general hypothesis in Nanoscience and Nanontechnoloy is based on experience and figures the properties of materials at the level of single molecules and small arrogates of single molecules, as well as atoms, are very different from microscopic behavior. I try to apply this new knowledge and possibilities to develop devices, electronic devices, sensors and many other useful things. The second important thing connected to this area is the development of materials for biomedical materials application. What happens when living matter contacts with synthetic material? I help to solve which can or cannot destroy, or help to fix defects that are collecting in our organism.