Assistant Professor Rob Candler receives the Young Investigator Award

Rob Candler, a UCLA assistant professor of electrical engineering, has received a Young Investigator Award from the Army Research Office. 

His research proposal is titled, "Energy Dissipation in Nanomechanical Resonators."  The research will explore the fundamental mechanisms in which energy is dissipated in nanoscale vibrating structures.  The role of electronic surface states as pathways for dissipation of mechanical energy will be investigated, as well as methods for disrupting these pathways using atomically thin coatings.  The nanoscale resonators have the potential to impact frequency references and filters used in communications, and they also hold the possibility to be used as a new type of resonant sensor based on changes in energy dissipation. 

Prof. Candler is the director of the Sensors and Technology Laboratory (http://stl.ee.ucla.edu), as well as the faculty director for the Nanoelectronics Research Facility, a multi-user nanofabrication laboratory.  The Sensors and Technology Laboratory focuses on micro and nanoscale technologies, including resonators, 3D printed fluidic devices, and microscale magnetic devices for free electron lasers.  In addition to his departmental affiliation, Prof. Candler has a joint appointment with the California NanoSystems Institute.