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Affiliated Faculty

Affiliated faculty for the MSEI are affiliated with the Departments of Physics, Chemistry, and Earth & Planetary Sciences in the Division of Physical and Biological Sciences and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Baskin School of Engineering.
Ali Yanik
  • Title
    • Associate Professor
  • Division Baskin School of Engineering
  • Department
    • Electrical and Computer Engineering
    • Crown College
  • Phone
    831-459-3491
  • Email
  • Website
  • Office Location
    • Jack Baskin Engineering Building, E-mail (yanik@ucsc.edu)
  • Mail Stop SOE2
  • Mailing Address
    • Jack Baskin Building Office #257C
    • Santa Cruz CA 95064
  • Faculty Areas of Expertise Electrical Engineering, Optics, Biotechnology, Bioengineering, Viruses and Microbes, Neuroscience, Material Science, Solid State Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Computational Modeling
  • Courses EE-130/130L: Introduction to Optoelectronics and Photonics, EE-135: Electromagnetic Fields and Waves, EE-218: Fundamentals of Nanoelectronics, EE-230: Optical Fiber Communication
  • Advisees, Grad Students, Researchers , , , , Yixiang Li, , , , ,

Research Interests

  • Nanoplasmonics and metamaterials
  • Lab-on-chip systems: optofluidic bionems, nanofluidics and label free biosensors
  • Nanospectroscopy: plasmonic nanoantennas and single molecule vibrational dynamics
  • Rare cell isolation and single cell analysis: circulating tumor cells, plasmonic nanotweezers and phononic crystals for flow cytometry
  • Nanofabrication, soft lithography and biopatterning; nanoelectronics, spintronics and thermoelectricity

Biography, Education and Training

Prof. Yanik's research focuses on Circulating Tumor Cell (CTC) detection from human blood using nano-fluidic platforms for cancer diagnostics. His research interests includes nanoplasmonic and metamaterial devices for ultrasensitive infrared/terahertz spectroscopy of biomolecules/chemicals and high-throughput, cost effective, BioNEMS technologies for life sciences and point-of-care diagnostics. His expertise is in high-end nanolithography and bio-patterning as well as theory and engineering of nanophotonic devices. He received his Ph.D. degree in applied theoretical physics from Purdue University, under the supervision of Prof. Supriyo Datta. During his PhD, he studied spin dependent electron transport in low dimensional molecular/nano-electronic devices and introduced one of the most advanced quantum transport models (spin-NEGF) that exists today. Before joining to UCSC, he was a senior research associate at The Center for Engineering in Medicine & BioMEMS Resources Center (PI: Prof. Mehmet Toner) at Harvard University Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. He was also instrumental in the establishment of The Laboratory of Integrated Nanophotonics and Biosensing Systems at The Boston University Photonics Center, as a postdoctoral fellow and research associate. He has authored/co-authored more than 80 journal and conference publications and holds multiple patents and disclosures, some of which are licensed to commercial partners. Awarded the Bronze Medal in the 25th International Physics Olympiads at the age of 15, Ahmet has been actively involved in science and engineering education since his high school years.