Dr. David Lederman was a self-described “science nerd” growing up. As a kid in Latin America, though, he likely had no idea that he’d wind up in West Virginia leading a team of scientists and students through the unknowns of nanotechnology.

Lederman, whoD.-ledderman-and-studentse research team seeks to understand the fundamental properties of materials in reduced dimensions, or nanotechnology, is the Robert L. Carroll Professor of Physics and Interim Chairperson of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at West Virginia University (WVU) and the principal investigator of the state’s current five-year National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) grant.

Of particular interest to him are properties resulting from interfaces between different materials – for example, magnetic and biological materials. The interactions between different types of nanoscale materials are expected to be the basis of future electronic devices.

At the top of his to-do list currently is a device that could have far-reaching future possibilities: an artificial nose.

Click here to read more about Lederman’s accomplishments and research in the Spring 2015 edition of the Neuron.

To read about other West Virginia researchers featured in the Neuron, visit the Neuron page of the Library.