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Mechanical Engineering Alumnus Harish Bhaskaran Awarded Fellowship in Manufacturing by British Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

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Dr. Harish Bhaskaran (Ph.D., 2006, M.S., 2002) received the first Fellowship in Manufacturing awarded by the  Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), a British government agency aimed at funding research and training in engineering and the physical sciences.  Bhaskaran was among four recipients of £1 million ($1.6 million) to fund innovative manufacturing projects over five years. 

Bhaskaran’s research aims to bring pick-and-place assembly of structures to the nanoscale, using specialized nanorobotic arms to pick-and-place nanoparticles into functional assemblies.  This process would minimize waste generation in microfabrication and nanofabrication processes used to make intergrated circuits and microelectromechanical systems. 

An interdisciplinary research experience in physics and mechanical engineering at UMD helped Bhaskaran understand experimental physics as well as the more fundamental science ideas in engineering.  The flexibility and openness of UMD faculty was critical for Bhaskaran to pursue both of these fields at UMD.  His advisors Professor Keith Schwab, now an applied physics professor at the California Institute of Technology, and Mechanical Engineering Professor Peter Sandborn continue to provide mentorship to Bhaskaran. 

Bhaskaran will be based at the University of Exeter, where he is a senior lecturer in functional materials.  Before beginning his teaching career, he was a postdoctoral visiting scientist at IBM Research in Zurich and an associate research scientist at Yale University.

Published August 20, 2012