Research Highlight:
Dr. Tevis Jacobs
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Pittsburgh
Challenging Assumptions About Nanoscale Interactions at Surfaces
This research highlight features Tevis Jacobs, Ph.D., a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Jacobs discusses his research path leading to his current work on nanoscale surface interactions. He focuses on the assumptions that often must be made about contact area and conductance during dynamic nanoscale testing, and how those assumptions can be verified or refuted using in-situ imaging capabilities.
“A lot of our work has been asking that question: do these conventional models work? If they do work, great, why do they work? Why do continuum models apply all the way to the atomic scale? And if they don’t work, it’s not enough to just say that they break down, you need to figure out how they break down? Why? And what models should replace them?”
ABOUT THE RESEARCHER:
Tevis Jacobs, Ph.D. is a William Kepler Whiteford Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Pittsburgh.
FIELD OF STUDY:
Dr. Jacob’s research all fundamentally addresses the question: how do we understand interactions at surfaces? His group at the University of Pittsburgh approaches this question at all scales from the nanoscale to the macroscale.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS RESEARCH:
- JACOBS LAB
- Vishnubhotla, S. B., Chen, R., Khanal, S. R., Martini, A., and Jacobs, T. D. B. (2018). “Understanding Contact between Platinum Nanocontacts at Low Loads: The Effect of Reversible Plasticity.” Nanotechnology. IOP Publishing.
- Baker, A. J., Vishnubhotla, S. B., Chen, R., Martini, A., and Jacobs, T. D., B. (2022). “Origin of Pressure-Dependent Adhesion in Nanoscale Contacts.” Nano Letters. American Chemical Society (ACS).
- WATCH NOW: "In-Situ SEM and TEM NanoTribology with Hysitron PicoIndenter" feat. Dr. Tevis Jacobs
