Schniepp Group Home

In the nanomaterials & imaging lab, we investigate and develop high-performance lightweight nanomaterials of the next-generation. Such materials will be low-cost to produce, yet very versatile and multi-functional.

Principal Investigator of the Group is Prof. Hannes Schniepp.

Our Lab in the Media
Highlights

News

May 2019	Graduation: Will Dickinson graduated with his PhD on “Interfacial Forces of 2D Materials at the Oil-Water Interface”.
May 2019	Graduation: John Gardner graduated with his PhD on “Additive Manufacturing of Nanomaterials Based Hierarchical Structures”.
May 2019	Graduation: Undergraduate Ben Skopic graduated with his BS in Physics and doing senior research on “Mechanics of a Bio-Inspired One-Dimensional Thin-Film Mechanical Metamaterial”.
April 2019	Qijue Wang traveled to Phoenix, AZ to present his work on “Vibrational Spectroscopy of Nanofibrillar Spider Silk” at the MRS conference.
March 2019	PhD student Qijue Wang was the only Arts & Sciences winner of the International Student Achievement Award.
March 2019	PhD students Qijue Wang, Dinidu Perera, and Avishi Abeywickrama present at William and Mary's Graduate Research Symposium.
February 2019	12-minute radio feature of our silk research titled Bulletproof Spider Silk. Aired Feb. 15 on NPR's show “With Good Reason” hosted by Sarah McConnell. (Episode Link)
January 2019	New Publication: JOM (2019) — Wang, Schniepp* "Nanofibrils as Building Blocks of Silk Fibers: Critical Review of the Experimental Evidence". We experimentally determined that recluse silk is entirely made of nanofibrils. (paper).
November 2018	Science Magazine produced a video featuring our recent breakthrough on the nanofibrillar structure of spider silk on Nov. 20. (Link to Video)
November 2018	Discussion of the recent ACS Macro Letters paper reaches #1 on the engineering subreddit for two days receiving over 32,000 upvotes and 800 comments. (Link to thread)
October 2018	New Publication: ACS Macro Letters (2018) — Wang, Schniepp* "Strength of Recluse Spider's Silk Originates from Nanofibrils". We experimentally determined that recluse silk is entirely made of nanofibrils. (paper).
May 2018	New Publication: Nanoscale (2018) — Dickinson, Kumar, Adamson, Schniepp* "High-throughput optical thickness and size characterization of 2D materials". We developed a simple method to measure the thickness of many graphene sheets with atomic precision (press release).
Apr 2018	Undergraduate student Chloe Walsh successfully defended her honors thesis, “Self-Assembly of Native Spider Silk Protein” on April 25.
Apr 2018	Nanomaterials & Imaging Lab at William & Mary Earth Day 2018: We highlighted the ability of silk to replace synthetic plastics and the importance of our research to achieve this goal.
Mar 2018	Ph. D. student Qijue Wang presented his work on Mar. 5, in APS 2018 March Meeting in Los Angeles, CA.
Mar 2018	Prof. Schniepp presents an invited talk on “Toughness-Enhancing Linear Metastructure in the Recluse Spider’s Nanoribbon Silk” in the Bio Nano Interfaces and Engineering Applications Symposium at TMS 2018: Annual Meeting & Exhibition in Phoenix, AR.
Jan 2018	Ph. D. student Qijue Wang is awarded Arts & Sciences Office of Graduate Studies and Research/Graduate Student Association Conference Funding, William and Mary.

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