Tricia Carmichael

Tricia Carmichael
Alma materUniversity of Windsor (PhD)
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Windsor
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Harvard University
Thomas J. Watson Research Center
ThesisStudies of terminal phosphinidene complexes of zirconium (1996)

Tricia L. Carmichael (née Breen) is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Windsor. She develops new materials for stretchable electronics with a current focus on wearable electronic devices.

Early life and education

Carmichael was an undergraduate student at the University of Windsor, where she earned a bachelor's degree in Chemistry. She remained there for her graduate studies, where she worked on zirconium complexes. After graduating Carmichael was a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[1] In 1997 she joined the laboratory of George M. Whitesides at Harvard University, where she spent two years as a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) research fellow. She studied charge transport through self-assembled monolayers, and showed that the injection current density was greater in n-alkanethiolates with odd numbers of carbon atoms.[2] She joined the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in 1999, where she worked in research and development. Here she specialised in synthesis and the development of low-cost patterning methods.

Research and career

In 2005 Carmichael was appointed to the faculty at the University of Windsor, and promoted to Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 2016.[3] Her research involves the development of novel materials and fabrication methods stretchable and wearable electronic devices.[4][5] A challenge for the real-world implementation of these materials is how they will survive machine washing.[3] She has investigated various means to generate conductive threads, including nick immersion gold plating and soft wax screening.[6] Each thread is bathed in a series of chemical washes and coated with a layer of gold only 100 nm thick, making the process cheap and scalable.[3][7][8] In 2020 Carmichael demonstrated a stretchable, conformable light emitting fabric that could be used to replace high-visibility clothing.[9] The semi-transparent fabric contains nylon, spandex and gold, whilst the light-emission occurs from zinc sulfide.[10][11]

In 2019 Carmichael and her colleague James Gauld coordinated the first LGBTQ+ in STEM conference in Canada.[12]

Awards and honours

  • NSERC Doctoral Prize for her PhD work
  • Ontario Ministry of Innovation Early Researcher Award
  • NSERC University Faculty Award
  • University of Windsor Impact Award[13]

Selected publications

Her awards and honours include:

Carmichael serves on the Editorial Board of the Institute of Physics journal Flexible and Printed Electronics as Editor-in-Chief, and Cell Press' Chem.[17][18] She holds more than two dozen patents for her innovations in materials synthesis and electronic device design.[19] She is also currently scientific co-Director of the NSERC Green Electronic Network.

References

  1. ^ "Tricia B. Carmichael | The Buchwald Research Group". chemistry-buchwald.mit.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  2. ^ Baghbanzadeh, Mostafa; Simeone, Felice C.; Bowers, Carleen M.; Liao, Kung-Ching; Thuo, Martin; Baghbanzadeh, Mahdi; Miller, Michael S.; Carmichael, Tricia Breen; Whitesides, George M. (2014-12-03). "Odd–Even Effects in Charge Transport across n-Alkanethiolate-Based SAMs" (PDF). Journal of the American Chemical Society. 136 (48): 16919–16925. doi:10.1021/ja509436k. ISSN 0002-7863. PMID 25380500. S2CID 18951312.
  3. ^ a b c "U of W professor makes breakthrough in wearable electronics | Windsor Star". windsorstar.com. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  4. ^ "Dr. Tricia Breen Carmichael | Faculty of Engineering". www.eng.mcmaster.ca. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  5. ^ "Researchers Examine New Polymers to Advance Field of Stretchable Electronics". AZoM.com. 2017-03-20. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  6. ^ "University of Calgary". go.ucalgary.ca. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  7. ^ Chen, Yiting; Wu, Yunyun; Mechael, Sara S.; Carmichael, Tricia Breen (2019-03-26). "Heterogeneous Surface Orientation of Solution-Deposited Gold Films Enables Retention of Conductivity with High Strain—A New Strategy for Stretchable Electronics". Chemistry of Materials. 31 (6): 1920–1927. doi:10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b04487. ISSN 0897-4756. S2CID 104325891.
  8. ^ "Scientists are using gold to create high-tech clothes at University of Windsor". CBC. 2018-03-15. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  9. ^ Liverpool, Layal. "Gold-coated fabric that emits own light could be ultimate safety gear". New Scientist. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  10. ^ Kim, Meeri (2020). "Light-Emitting Textiles for Smart Clothing". Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  11. ^ "Gold coating helps illuminate hosiery". Chemical & Engineering News. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  12. ^ "First-of-its-kind conference celebrates LGBT in STEM". CBBC. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  13. ^ "Employee Recognition Awards Recipients - 2019". Employee Recognition. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  14. ^ Gracias, D. H. (2000-08-18). "Forming Electrical Networks in Three Dimensions by Self-Assembly". Science. 289 (5482): 1170–1172. Bibcode:2000Sci...289.1170G. doi:10.1126/science.289.5482.1170. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 10947979. S2CID 1258710.
  15. ^ Afzali, Ali; Dimitrakopoulos, Christos D.; Breen, Tricia L. (2002). "High-Performance, Solution-Processed Organic Thin Film Transistors from a Novel Pentacene Precursor". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 124 (30): 8812–8813. doi:10.1021/ja0266621. ISSN 0002-7863. PMID 12137531.
  16. ^ Breen, T. L. (1999-05-07). "Design and Self-Assembly of Open, Regular, 3D Mesostructures". Science. 284 (5416): 948–951. Bibcode:1999Sci...284..948B. doi:10.1126/science.284.5416.948. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 10320372.
  17. ^ "Editorial Board - Flexible and Printed Electronics - IOPscience". iopscience.iop.org. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  18. ^ "Chem: Editorial Board: Chem". www.cell.com. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  19. ^ "Search Patents - Justia Patents Search". patents.justia.com. Retrieved 2020-03-07.