Fardian-Melamed is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow working with Columbia mechanical engineer Jim Schuck. His lab aims to characterize, understand, and control light-matter interactions, with a focus on sensing, engineering, and exploiting novel quantum and optoelectronic properties emerging from nanostructures and interfaces.
Fardian-Melamed's latest research, "Infrared nanosensors of piconewton to micronewton forces," and the subject of her pitch, was published in January in Nature and featured in Physics World and on the cover of Laser Focus World. The new nanosensors use "avalanching" nanoparticles, discovered by Shuck's lab and published in Nature in 2021, to detect minute changes in compressive force.
“What makes these force sensors unique – apart from their unparalleled multiscale sensing capabilities – is that they operate with benign, biocompatible, and deeply penetrating infrared light," Fardian-Melamed told Columbia Engineering. “This allows one to peer deep into various technological and physiological systems, and monitor their health from afar. Enabling the early detection of malfunction or failure in these systems, these sensors will have a profound impact on fields ranging from human health to energy and sustainability.”
