Browsing by Author "Evans, Kenneth"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Building and Employing New Digital Resources for the Study of US Scientific Advisors
    (Rice University, 2024) Von Arx, Devin; Traylor, Jordan; Evans, Kenneth; Baker Institute Science and Technology Policy Program
    Policymakers in the United States executive branch increasingly rely on scientific data and analysis to make decisions on a wide range of public policy challenges, from improving public health and strengthening the national economy to nuclear nonproliferation and advancing global diplomacy. This poster outlines the creation of a relational database that enables systemic analysis of the role and impact of individual scientific advisors and advisory bodies involved in U.S. national science, technology, and innovation policymaking across time.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    C60 - A Model for the Future
    (James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy of Rice University, 2010) Lo, Nathan; Calhoun, Kara; Liou, David; Evans, Kenneth; Matthews, Kirstin; Lane, Neal; Baker Institute Science and Technology Policy Program
    This précis describes the lives and Nobel Prize-winning discovery of C60 by Robert F. Curl Jr., Sir Harold Kroto, and Richard Smalley.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Nanocrystal-based optoelectronic devices in plamonic nanojunctions
    (2013-06-05) Evans, Kenneth; Natelson, Douglas; Nordlander, Peter J.; Wong, Michael S.
    Optical trapping is an important tool for studying and manipulating nanoscale objects. Recent experiments have shown that subwavelength control of nanoparticles is possible by using patterned plasmonic nanostructures, rather than using a laser directly, to generate the electric fields necessary for particle trapping. In this thesis we present a theoretical model and experimental evidence for plasmonic optical trapping in nanoscale metal junctions. Further, we examine the use of the resultant devices as ultrasmall photodectors. Electromigrated nanojunctions, or “nanogaps”, have a well-established plasmon resonance in the near-IR, leading to electric field enhancements large enough for single-molecule sensitivity in Surface-Enhance Raman (SERS) measurements. While molecule-based devices have been carefully studied, optically and electrically probing individual quantum dots in nanoscale metal junctions remains relatively unexplored. Plasmon-based optical trapping of quantum dots into prefabricated structures could allow for inexpensive, scalable luminescent devices which are fully integrable into established silicon-based fabrication techniques. Additionally, these metal-nanocrystal-metal structures are ideal candidates to study optoelectronics in ultrasmall nanocrystals-based structures, as well as more exotic nanoscale phenomena such as blinking, plasmon-exciton interactions, and surface-enhanced fluorescence (SEF). We present experimental data supporting plasmon-based optical trapping in the nanogap geometry, and a corresponding numerical model of the electric field-generated forces in the nanogap geometry. Further, we give proof-of-concept measurements of photoconductance in the resultant quantum dot-based devices, as well as challenges and improvements moving forward.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Importance of Science Advocacy
    (Journal of Science Policy & Governance, Inc., 2012) Evans, Kenneth; Matthews, Kirstin
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Road From DSpace 6 to DSpace 7 and Beyond: Building (and Building on) Two Modern Digital Repositories at Rice University
    (Rice University, 2024-06-03) Jin, Ying; Mulligan, John; Evans, Kenneth
    In October 2023, the Digital Scholarship Services team in Fondren Library at Rice University upgraded its digital repository. The process was both challenging, rewarding, and instructive for our future work on digital collections. We took a mixed approach in which 27% of our content was moved to Quartex, which could be curated as digital cultural heritage, 11% was retired, and the remainder migrated from the DSpace 6.4 system to the new 7.6 deployment. We are now using our two new platforms’ APIs to enable a microservices-based approach to customized UI presentations for special collections, and semi-automatic metadata enrichment, and document submission workflows. This poster describes our preliminary attempts in this space on two collections: geo-located photographs of Chinese subway advertisements over two decades and the geographically dispersed papers relating to the United States President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology