Two new scientists have joined the Center for Nanoscale
Materials (CNM) at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne
National Laboratory. Elena Rozhkova and Elena Shevchenko are
contributing their expertise to the NanoBio Interfaces Group.
"We are looking forward to having these two scientists conduct
research with us at one of the best venues available," said Tijana
Rajh, Argonne's CNM NanoBio Interfaces group leader.
"With their assistance we will continue our integration of
soft biological and organic molecular assemblies with hard inorganic
nanoarchitectures to be applied to chemical catalysis, sensors, energy
and information storage, developing new cures for cancer and biological
intervention," she added.
Rozhkova earned her Ph.D in Chemistry, with specialization in
Bioorganic Chemistry and Chemistry of Natural Bioactive compounds, from
Moscow State Academy of Fine Chemical Technology in Russia in 1997. She
most recently worked as a Research Associate in the Biological Division
at the University of Chicago, where she focused on bio-functionalized
nanocomposites for biomedical and environmental applications.
As a Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS)
postdoctoral fellow, Rozhkova conducted research on iron-oxygenases, in
particular Nitric Oxide Synthase, mechanisms of catalysis, oxygen
activation and electron transfer at Tohoku University's
Multidisciplinary Institute for Advanced Materials. Later she continued
her research in the field of metalloproteins at the Chemistry
Department at Princeton University. She was also a recipient of the
Women's Council of the Brain Research Foundation award that was
featured in the BRF Newsletter, "Brain Waves."
A member of the American Chemical Society, Rozhkova has
written and collaborated on 23 peer-reviewed publications and has been
awarded two patents.
Shevchenko, originally from Belarus, earned her Ph.D in
Chemistry in 2003 from the University of Hamburg in Germany.
Previously, she worked as a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory on bringing together constituents of intrinsically
different functionality nanoparticles in order to create novel
functional materials with synergistic properties found in neither of
the constituents, as well as on nanoparticle design. Her research
highlights include synthesis and size control of nanoparticles and
their assembling into highly periodic structures. Prior to her work at
Lawrence Berkeley, Shevchenko bridged her postdoctoral fellowship
between time at the IBM Watson Research Center and Columbia University.
Her work was recently featured in Nature as well as Chemical and
Engineering News.
She is a member of both the Materials Research Society and the
German Physical Chemistry Society and has been published in 32
peer-reviewed publications.
Argonne's Center for Nanoscale Materials is a national
resource for the US to foster new research capabilities in nanoscale
synthesis and processing, and it plays a key role in the DOE's
participation in the interagency National Nanotechnology Initiative.
The center's mission includes supporting basic research and advanced
instrumentation development for the creation of novel materials, using
both top-down and bottom-up self-assembly, that provide new insights at
the nanoscale level. The facility also supports a user program, through
peer-reviewed proposals, that is open to academic, industrial,
government, and international potential users.
With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne National
Laboratory brings the world's brightest scientists and engineers
together to find exciting and creative new solutions to pressing
national problems in science and technology. The nation's first
national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied
scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne
researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies,
universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them
solve their specific problems, advance America's scientific leadership
and prepare the nation for a better future. Argonne is managed by
UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of
Science.