<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:x="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel" xmlns:p="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:powerpoint" xmlns:a="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:access" xmlns:dt="uuid:C2F41010-65B3-11d1-A29F-00AA00C14882" xmlns:s="uuid:BDC6E3F0-6DA3-11d1-A2A3-00AA00C14882" xmlns:rs="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:rowset" xmlns:z="#RowsetSchema" xmlns:b="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:publisher" xmlns:ss="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet" xmlns:c="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:component:spreadsheet" xmlns:odc="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:odc" xmlns:oa="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:activation" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40" xmlns:q="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:rtc="http://microsoft.com/officenet/conferencing" xmlns:D="DAV:" xmlns:Repl="http://schemas.microsoft.com/repl/" xmlns:mt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/meetings/" xmlns:x2="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2003/xml" xmlns:ppda="http://www.passport.com/NameSpace.xsd" xmlns:ois="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/ois/" xmlns:dir="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/directory/" xmlns:ds="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#" xmlns:dsp="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/dsp" xmlns:udc="http://schemas.microsoft.com/data/udc" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:sub="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/2002/1/alerts/" xmlns:ec="http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#" xmlns:sp="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/" xmlns:sps="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:udcs="http://schemas.microsoft.com/data/udc/soap" xmlns:udcxf="http://schemas.microsoft.com/data/udc/xmlfile" xmlns:udcp2p="http://schemas.microsoft.com/data/udc/parttopart" xmlns:wf="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/workflow/" xmlns:dsss="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2006/digsig-setup" xmlns:dssi="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2006/digsig" xmlns:mdssi="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/package/2006/digital-signature" xmlns:mver="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns:mrels="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/package/2006/relationships" xmlns:spwp="http://microsoft.com/sharepoint/webpartpages" xmlns:ex12t="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types" xmlns:ex12m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages" xmlns:pptsl="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/SlideLibrary/" xmlns:spsl="http://microsoft.com/webservices/SharePointPortalServer/PublishedLinksService" xmlns:Z="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:" xmlns:st="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)"><!--[if !mso]><style>v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><h2><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:rect id="_x0000_s1026" style='position:absolute;left:0;text-align:left;margin-left:320.25pt;margin-top:-1.9pt;width:282pt;height:27pt;z-index:-1' strokeweight="3pt">
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</v:rect><![endif]--><![if !vml]><span style='mso-ignore:vglayout;position:relative;z-index:-1'><span style='left:0px;position:absolute;left:425px;top:-5px;width:380px;height:41px'><img width=380 height=41 src="cid:image001.png@01CC6CAC.F06F1C10" v:shapes="_x0000_s1026"></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>PhD Dissertation Announcement<o:p></o:p></span></h2><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Shape Engineered Nanoparticle Fabrication for Biomedical Applications<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>by<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Azeem Nasrullah<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Committee Chair: Paul Ruchhoeft Place: SERC 1016<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Committee Members: Dmitri Litvinov Date: September 12th, 2011<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.5in;text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Richard Willson Time: 11:00am<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.5in;text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Randall Lee<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:1.5in;text-indent:.5in'><span style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Stanko Brankovic<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Semiconductor fabrication research has developed technologies that allow for the deposition and patterning of thin films, and can be applied to many different industries, including the field of medicine. One such application is the fabrication of nanoparticles. There are a wide variety of nanoparticle based medical diagnostics and therapies, including drug delivery and cancer imaging. Most of the nanoparticles being studied are chemically synthesized and spherical in shape, and studies have shown that other shapes can be more useful in certain applications, especially those that involve in vivo analysis and treatment. Fabrication of particles using a tool set developed from the semiconductor industry can allow for a detailed study of size and shape dependence on nanoparticle uptake in the bloodstream. Particle fabrication is achieved using thin film deposition, ion beam proximity lithography, wet etching, and lift-off, all similar to techniques commonly found in the semiconductor industry. The particles are formed using patterns developed with proximity lithography, and this represents the largest effort in this work. An ion beam, generated by a saddle-field ion source, is used to irradiate a polymeric resist with a thin membrane stencil mask placed in close proximity to the resist coated substrate in order to define the pattern. A saddle-field ion source was constructed and characterized for proximity lithography, with a beam diameter of 4.8 mm for a ±5% tolerance in current density, a source size range of 0.3-0.9 mm, an average brightness value of 15 nA/(cm2·sr), and average exposure times of ≈30 s. Stencil masks were fabricated from silicon nitride membranes in order to generate the pattern for the nanoparticles, and the particles were fabricated using a bi-layer resist and a sacrificial copper layer for release into solution.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif";color:blue'>_______________________________________________________</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif";color:blue'>Suresh K. Khator, Ph.D., P.E. Phone: 713-743-4205 <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif";color:blue'>Associate Dean, College of Engineering Fax: 713-743-4214<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif";color:blue'>University of Houston Email: skhator@uh.edu <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif";color:blue'>E421 Engineering Bldg 2 www.egr.uh.edu/ie<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Book Antiqua","serif";color:blue'>Houston, TX 77204-4008<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>