People

Academic staff

Dr Natalie Plank

Dr Natalie Plank

Natalie is a lecturer in Physics in the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. She is also a Principal Investigator of the MacDiarmid Institute.

Natalie completed a BSc (Hons) in Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh before doing an MSc in Microelectronics. She then completed her PhD on the functionalisation of carbon nanotubes for molecular electronics with Rebecca Cheung also at the University of Edinburgh.

Natalie then spent three years at the Cambridge Nanoscience Centre working with Professor Sir Mark Welland on solid state dye sensitised solar cells.


Group members

PhD students

Jenna Nguyen
Hong-Phan T. Nguyen (Jenna)

Hong-Phan T. Nguyen (Jenna)

Jenna is working towards biosensing using CNT FET and neuromorphic devices. Her project will also include the synthesis, fabrication and electrical characterisation of nanowire that can employ with DNA aptamer recognition elements for electronic biosensors.

2018–present: PhD candidate and holder of a MacDiarmid Institute PhD Scholarship.

2014: MSc in Biomedical Engineering at National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan

2011: BE in Computing Engineering at HCMC University of Technology and Education, Vietnam


Erica Happe

Erica Happe

Erica is working towards the fabrication of CNT FETs for use as biosensors. She will be using conductive atomic force microscopy to characterize conduction in the network and to understand network sensitivity. This work is in collaboration with Dr. Colleen Marlow at California Polytechnic State University, USA.

2018–present: PhD candidate and holder of a MacDiarmid Institute PhD Scholarship.

2014–2018: BS in Physics at California Polytechnic State University


Erica Cassie

Erica Cassie

Erica is working towards multiplexing the carbon nanotube FET biosensors developed by the group, so that thye may be used to measure multiple different target biomolecules. This work will focus on the microfabrication techniques needed to manufacture such devices.

2019–present: PhD candidate and holder of a Marsden Fund Scholarship. 2018: BE(Hons)/BSc conjoint in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Physics at the University of Auckland.


Alumni

Postdoctoral fellow

2020: Rifat Ullah

PhD students

2019: Mohsen Maddah

2019: Murugathas Thanihaichelvan (Selvan)

2019: Leo Browning

2017: Conor Burke-Govey

2015: Hanyue (Hannah) Zheng

Masters students

2018: Campbell Matthews

2015: Cameron Wood

Honours students

2019: Ned Treacher

2016: Charlotte Duda

2016: Campbell Matthews

2015: Ryan Moody

2014: Leo Browning

2013: Stanley Roache

2012: Harpreet Singh

Visiting interns

2017: Teerapong (Max) Jantarat

2015: Alexandre Nau, Université de Bordeaux (France)

2013: Ron Hendriks, University of Twente (Netherlands)

Summer students

2020/2021: Isla Day

2020/2021: Hayden Young

2017/2018: Kira Pitman

2014/2015: Charlotte Duda

2013/2014: Hamish Colenso

2012/2013: Benjamin Dunn

2011/2012: Cameron Wood