John D.W. Madden
Associate Professor
Office: (604) 827-5306
Lab: (604) 822-6267
Fax: (604) 822-5949
Office: Room 3042 Kaiser
2332 Main Mall, Vancouver
V6T 1Z4 Canada
Lab: Brimacombe/AMPEL Building
2355 East Mall
Vancouver BC V6T 1Z4 CANADA
Email: jmadden@ece.ubc.ca
Seeking new lab members – please see below!
Background:
B.Sc. Honours Physics, UBC
(1991); M.Eng. Biomedical Engineering, McGill (1995).
Ph.D. Mechanical
Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, (2000).
Post-doctoral Associate, MIT BioInstrumentation
Laboratory, (2000-2001).
Research Scientist, MIT BioInstrumentation
Laboratory (2001-2002).
Chief Scientist and Founder, Molecular Mechanisms LLC
(2001-2004).
Research Interests
Theme: Fabrication, characterization, modeling and application of novel
materials
for use in electrical and electromechanical
devices.
Molecular Actuators: Molecular scale dimensional changes are employed to
create materials with muscle-like properties. Electrochemically-driven conducting
polymers and carbon nanotube yarns
are being characterized and applied in medical
devices. Current
actuators generate up to 100 x more force than mammalian skeletal
muscle for a given cross-section, and three times the power
to mass. Work is
aimed at creating viable artificial muscle driven catheters
for treatment of stroke, and
in the development of new nanostructured
actuators based on carbon nanotubes and
metal nanofibres bundles. Collaborators include Geoffrey Spinks,
Intelligent Polymer
Research
Institute, U. Of Wollongong, Ray Baughman,
NanoTech Institute, UT Dallas,
Victor Yang, Ryerson University, and Chad Sinclair,
Materials Engineering, UBC.
BioPhotovoltaics: In nature a
protein complex known as a reaction centre is
responsible for collecting
light and generating charge. We are
investigating the
application of these reactions
centres in solar cells in the hopes of creating very
inexpensive solar cells whose
production consumes carbon dioxide. These devices
may be able to harvest
and store energy in one simple device. This work is a
collaboration with J. Thomas Beatty, Microbiology
and Immunology, UBC,
Arash Takshi, University of South
Florida, as well as David Officer,
Gordon Wallace and
their team at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Electromaterials
Science.
High Power Capacitors and
Batteries: Conducting polymers, including
polypyrrole, feature
capacitances of over 100 Farads per gram.
We are investigating
the application of
these and other novel materials to the fabrication of high power,
high cycle life and
high energy density batteries and supercapacitors. Collaborators
include Frank Ko,
Materials Engineering, UBC, Carl Michal, Physics at UBC, Mark
MacLachlan and
Michael Wolf, Chemistry, UBC, and Epod Solar of
Kelowna.
Printed Devices: My group are working with Konrad Walus, Edmond Cretu,
and
Boris Stoeber to create printable
devices including sensors, electronics and energy
storage devices.
Teaching
EECE 300 Molecules to Mechanisms
EECE 301 Topics in Nanotechnology and Microsystems
EECE 580 Emerging Electronic Materials and Devices
Coordinator, Nanotechnology and Microsystems Option.
Publications
Seeking New Members
The laboratory is seeking at least two students for
summer/fall 2011. The students are sought who are eager to contribute to our
projects in biophotovoltaics, ultrastrong
metal nanowire actuators, and active catheters. Students with backgrounds in Electrical
Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, Materials Engineering, Mechanical Engineering,
Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering and possibly other areas will be
considered. Students please apply at http://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/application-admission/apply-online
.
Molecular Mechatronics
Lab
For further information on research activities please
visit http://mm.ece.ubc.ca.
Last Updated: October 2010.