Emily Nelson ’12: Research Update

emilyspencernelson.jpgFirst year student Emily Nelson has recently begun work on a research project with professor Matt Trawick that seeks to improve the accuracy of atomic force microscope images.  The atomic force microscope in Trawick’s experimental research lab, a $200,000 instrument, is capable of resolving features on the scale of about one nanometer in size, about 1000 times smaller than conventional optical microscopes.  Emily is working to correct for a particular kind of image distortion that is common to such microscopes; the correction would allow these instruments to be used for sub-nanometer precision measurements in three spatial dimensions, and would be broadly useful to researchers in a variety of fields.  Emily expects to major in computer science, and also has interests in biology and the physical sciences.

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mtrawick

Matt Trawick holds a B.A. from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. from Ohio State University. He was a postdoctoral fellow and later a lecturer at Princeton University before coming to the University of Richmond as an assistant professor in 2004. His research interests include block copolymers, nanotechnology, and atomic force microscopy.