UC professor and Nanoworld co-director receives alumni award

A University of Cincinnati professor was honored this month with a faculty award from his alma mater.

UC College of Engineering and Applied Science professor Mark Schulz, PhD, received the Clifford C. Furnas Memorial Award from the University at Buffalo. The annual award is presented to a distinguished graduate of the university’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences or College of Arts and Sciences.

Schulz is a professor of mechanical and materials engineering at UC and the co-founder and co-director of Nanoworld Laboratories with UC professor of chemical and materials engineering Vesselin Shanov, PhD.

Nanoworld specializes in developing smart materials and devices based on nanotechnology. The research at Nanoworld covers a wide variety of applications, blending a number of academic disciplines. Though housed in engineering buildings, Nanoworld maintains success through this merging of academic fields.

“We collaborate with physics, and we collaborate with medicine,” says Schulz. “Dr. Shanov has a certain background, and I have a certain background – we’re a very interdisciplinary and diverse group.”

Schulz's work demonstrates UC commitment to research under its strategic plan, Next Lives Here.

Nanoworld comprises six labs and about 30 people, from students to post-doctoral fellows to faculty. The lab works on different applications in the area of nanotechnology, including biomedical and water filtration devices. Nanoworld’s hallmark product is the carbon nanotube sheet, manufactured right in the lab. 

The beauty of nanomaterials is its “unique suite of properties,” says Schulz. Nanomaterials are flexible, lightweight and small. They can be used as sensors and energy-storage devices, and they can fit into the seams of fabric, something both Shanov and Schulz are utilizing in different projects.