Robert Klie named a Rising Star Researcher of the Year
Professor Robert Klie was selected as one of UIC's 2015 Researcher of the Year award winners. The citation from the UIC Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research reads: "Dr. Klie’s group focuses on atomic-resolution characterization of materials using scanning transmission electron microscopy and spectroscopy. He has pioneered new techniques to explore the fundamental mechanisms that govern the structure-property relationships in condensed matter systems. He was responsible for bringing the JEOL JEM-ARM200CF to UIC, a state-of-the-art aberration–corrected scanning transmission electron microscope, one of the highest resolution instruments in the United States. In 2013, Klie’s team discovered a novel approach of encapsulating liquid containing samples between two single layers of graphene, allowing samples to be directly imaged at atomic resolution in their native state. In addition to the substantial improvement in resolution, he demonstrated that the superior conductivity of graphene can be used to prevent damage to biological samples exposed to electron beams, comparable to standing a few feet from a nuclear blast. Klie’s group has worked with collaborators from bioengineering, chemistry, and dentistry to image the structure and dynamics of proteins in tooth enamel, the composition of cells in diseased lung tissue, and the dynamics of cathodes for next generation batteries. His work was featured in Advanced Materials, one of the highest impact favor journals in Materials Physics." You can read more about Professor Klie's work in the UIC News 2/24/15 article.