​Abstract:  Optical sensors based on Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) effect are among the most versatile sensors due to their ability to characterize samples in various state of matter. The appeal of the SERS sensors lies in the molecular “fingerprint” specificity, sensitivity, and the non-invasive nature of the analysis. Although the current state of art SERS sensors have advanced toward ultrasensitivity with single-molecule detection limit, ultrafast analysis at femtosecond and sub-nanometer resolution, the application of these innovations in the industrial settings is still limited by the complexity of the substrate fabrication and the reproducibility of the SERS measurements. In this context, a study on the SERS sensors fabrication strategies and reliability of the SERS analysis is essential. This dissertation investigates various hybrids of noble metal and semiconductor materials and surface modifications to improve the stability and reliability of SERS measurement. Different industrial applications, including detection of petrochemical organic compounds and sensitive biochemical samples, were conducted to evaluate the performance of different SERS sensor designs. Evaluation of the morphology and surface functionalization of the substrate was accomplished to optimize the performance and stability of the collected signal. Together with the separately performed studies on Raman signal processing and interpretation, the proposed SERS sensor fabrication and signal analysis approach was successfully applied to detect and quantify organic isomers compounds and mutation point in peptides. The findings presented in this thesis offer rational SERS substrate designs and detection approaches which can advance the future commercialization of SERS sensors.

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• CONTACTLinda J. Sapolu
• EMAILLinda.Sapolu@kaust.edu.sa

​Abstract:
By controlling the exposed chemical functionality of materials from the submolecular through the centimeter scale, we have enabled new capabilities in biology, medicine, and other areas. I will discuss current and upcoming advances and will pose the challenges that lie ahead in creating, developing, and applying new tools using this capability. These advances include using biomolecular recognition in sensor arrays to probe dynamic chemistry in the brain and microbiome systems. In other areas, we introduce biomolecular payloads into cells for gene editing at high throughput for off-the-shelf solutions targeting hemoglobinopathies, immune diseases, and cancers. We circumvent the need for viral transfection and electroporation, both of which have significant disadvantages in safety, throughput, cell viability, and cost. Mechanical deformation can make cell membranes transiently porous and enable gene-editing payloads to enter cells. These methods use specific chemical functionalization and control of surface contact and adhesion in microfluidic channels. 

Biography:
Paul S. Weiss holds a UC Presidential Chair and is a distinguished professor of chemistry & biochemistry and of materials science & engineering at UCLA. He received his S.B. and S.M. degrees in chemistry from MIT in 1980 and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1986. He was a postdoctoral member of technical staff at Bell Laboratories from 1986-88 and a visiting scientist at IBM Almaden Research Center from 1988-89. He served as the director of the California NanoSystems Institute and held the Fred Kavli Chair in NanoSystems Sciences at UCLA from 2009-14. Before coming to UCLA, he was a distinguished professor of chemistry and physics at the Pennsylvania State University, where he began his academic career in 1989. His interdisciplinary research group includes chemists, physicists, biologists, materials scientists, mathematicians, bioengineers, electrical and mechanical engineers, computer scientists, clinicians, and physician scientists. They focus on the ultimate limits of miniatu­rization, exploring the atomic-scale chemical, physical, optical, mechanical, and electronic properties of surfaces, interfaces, supramolecular, and biomolecular assemblies. They develop new techniques to expand the applicability and chemical specificity of scanning probe microscopies. They apply these and other tools to study self- and directed assembly, and molecular and nanoscale devices. They advance nanofabrication down to ever smaller scales and greater chemical specificity to operate and to test functional molecular assemblies, and to connect to the chemical and biological worlds in neuroscience, gene editing, cancer immunotherapy, and the microbiome. He has written over 400 publications, holds over 30 patents, and has given over 800 invited, plenary, keynote, and named lectures.

Weiss has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Presidential Young Investigator Award (1991-96), the Scanning Microscopy International Presidential Scholarship (1994), the B. F. Goodrich Collegiate Inventors Award (1994), an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship (1995-97), the American Chemical Society (ACS) Nobel Laureate Signature Award for Graduate Education in Chemistry (1996), a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (1997), a NSF Creativity Award (1997-99), the ACS Award in Colloid and Surface Chemistry (2015), the ACS Southern California Section Tolman Medal (2017), the ACS Patterson-Crane Award in Chemical Information (2018), and the IEEE Nanotechnology Pioneer Award (2019), among others.
He was elected a fellow of:  the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2000), the American Physical Society (2002), the American Vacuum Society (2007), the ACS (2010), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2014), the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2016), the Canadian Academy of Engineering (2017), the Materials Research Society (2019), and an honorary fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society (2010).
He was also elected a senior member of the IEEE (2009). He received Penn State's University Teaching Award from the Schreyer Honors College (2004), was named a nanofabrication fellow at Penn State (2005), and won the Alpha Chi Sigma Outstanding Professor Award (2007).
He was a visiting professor at the University of Washington, Department of Molecular Biotechnology (1996-97) and Kyoto University, Electronic Science and Engineering Department and Venture Business Laboratory (1998 and 2000), and a distinguished visiting professor at the Kavli Nanoscience Institute and the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis at Caltech (2015). He is a visiting scholar at the Kavli Institute for Bionano Science & Technology and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University (2015-18).
He held the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) Chaire d'excellence Jacques­Beaulieu (2016-17) and was a Fulbright Specialist for the Czech Republic (2017).
Weiss was a member of the U.S. National Committee to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (2000-05). He has been the technical co-chair of the Foundations of Nanoscience Meetings and thematic chair of the Spring 2009 and Fall 2018 ACS National Meetings.
He was the senior editor of IEEE Electron Device Letters for molecular and organic electronics (2005-07), and is the founding editor-in-chief of ACS Nano (2007-).
At ACS Nano, he won the Association of American Publishers, Professional Scholarly Publishing PROSE Award for 2008, Best New Journal in Science, Technology, and Medicine, and ISI's Rising Star Award a record ten times.

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• CONTACTSijian Hou

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• CONTACTDr. Thomas Finkbeiner

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• CONTACTProf. Abdulkader M. Alafifi

​Abstract:  Unconventional petroleum systems span the geologic time spectrum from the early Paleozoic to Cenozoic eras. Some common features of these systems include minimal migration, overpressuring, intrinsic fracturing from hydrocarbon expulsion, a lack of obvious trap or seal, and typically low porosities and permeabilities. Production is enhanced by increased formation brittleness, allowing for effective hydraulic fracturing. In many systems, an increase in carbonate content, at the expense of clays, increases formation brittleness.

Bio: Dr. John D. Humphrey is Associate Professor and Assistant Chairman of Geosciences at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. His appointment is in the Department of Geosciences, within the College of Petroleum Engineering and Geosciences. He received his B.S. degree in Geology at the University of Vermont, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated Cum Laude. Dr. Humphrey received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Brown University in Geological Sciences. He was on the faculty of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Dallas from 1986 to 1991. Beginning in 1991, Dr. Humphrey was a professor of Geology and Geological Engineering at Colorado School of Mines. He was twice awarded the Alumni Teaching Award for the top educator at CSM (1998, 2014).  He served as Department Head from 2006 to 2013. From 2013 to 2015, he was Interim Director of the CSM Chevron Center of Research Excellence. He retired from Mines in 2015 and joined KFUPM in 2017. His areas of specialization include carbonate diagenesis and geochemistry, carbonate sedimentology and stratigraphy, carbonate reservoir characterization, unconventional carbonate reservoirs, stable isotope geochemistry, and paleoclimatology. He has been a consultant to the oil and gas and mining industries for thirty years. Dr. Humphrey is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and a Trustee Associate of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

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• CONTACTDr. Thomas Finkbeiner

​Bio: Dr. Tip Meckel is a senior research scientist investigating geologic carbon storage for the Bureau of Economic Geology at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Meckel earned his Master’s degree in geology from the University of Montana in Missoula in 1998 and his doctorate in geology and geophysics from The University of Texas at Austin in 2003. He subsequently had a two-year position with the U.S. Geological Survey as a Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow. During his 13 years with the Gulf Coast Carbon Center at the Bureau, he has led research focusing on geologic characterization, structural geology, monitoring design, and pressure evolution for CO2 injections. He has been directly involved with many large-scale field demonstration projects funded through the DOE-NETL Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships. After early exposure during the FRIO tests east of Houston in 2006, he co-directed the research program for the SECARB CO2-EOR demonstration project in Cranfield Mississippi, and currently leads the research initiative to identify offshore sequestration potential in the Gulf of Mexico with focus on capacity assessment and high-resolution 3D marine seismic monitoring technologies. Dr. Meckel works closely with offshore CCS developments in China, Japan, and the North Sea. He also leads research for one of the three Energy Frontier Research Centers focusing on CCS in the United States, supported through Basic Energy Sciences, and hosted by the Center for Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at UT-Austin. Since 2008 he has been PI or Co-PI on 16 CCS grants totaling over $70 million dollars.

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• CONTACTProf. Hussein Hoteit