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Upcoming Seminar

Gating of Ionic Transport at the Nanoscale. Lessons from Nature and Physics
Dr. Zuzanna Siwy, UC Irvine

October 22, 2025
4:00pm-5:00pm in HSCI-103

Abstract

Nanopores with tunable geometry and electrochemical properties of the pore walls serve as a template to understand ionic and molecular transport at extreme confinement. Due to nanoconfinement, nanopores exhibit ionic selectivity, i.e., the ability to transport only one type of ions, nonlinear current-voltage characteristics, and ion current switching behavior, among others. In the talk, I will present our work on using polymer and silicon nitride nanopores as a template to prepare ionic equivalents of semiconductor devices such as diodes and transistors, solid-state mimics of biological channels, and ionic circuits based on nanopore arrays. The talk will emphasize the importance of tuning electrochemical properties of solid/liquid interfaces for biomimetics, osmotic energy conversion, separations and energy storage systems.

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Biosketch

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Dr. Zuzanna S. Siwy received her Ph.D. in 1997 from the Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland, and habilitation in 2004. From 2000–2003 she was a Fellow of the Foundation for Polish Science, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the Institute for Heavy Ions Research (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany. After conducting postdoctoral research at the University of Florida, Gainesville, in July 2005, Dr. Siwy joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. In 2007, she became the Fellow of the Alfred von Sloan Foundation. In 2009, Dr. Siwy was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers as well as the Bessel Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Her current research interests focus on using synthetic nanopores as templates for biomimetic channels as well as ionic diodes and ionic transistors.