Suraj Makhija, a senior biomedical engineering student working in Professor Stanislav Emelianov's lab, won a 1st Place Poster Award at the World Molecular Imaging Congress held in Savannah, Georgia, September 18–21, 2013.

suraj web

Suraj Makhijia prepares silver seed particles for gold nanoplate synthesis. Silver seeds contain
inherent crystal defects known as stacking faults which ultimately lead to formation of planar nanoplates.


Suraj Makhija, a senior biomedical engineering student working in Professor Stanislav Emelianov's lab, won a 1st Place Poster Award at the World Molecular Imaging Congress held in Savannah, Georgia, September 18–21, 2013.

Makhija’s abstract titled “High-Yield, Silver Seed-Mediated Synthesis of Gold Nanoplates for Photoacoustic Imaging,” competed with approximately 20 other posters in the Photoacoustic and Ultrasound Contrast Agents category.

This was Makhija’s first time to attend the conference and to compete among participants, most of whom were graduate students or postdoctoral researchers.

Makhija’s research focuses on a new method to produce gold nanoplates, a relatively new particle used for combined photoacoustic and ultrasound imaging. Makijia’s research, supervised by graduate student Geoffrey Luke, has developed a way to more efficiently produce gold nanoplates from a silver seed. This method sheds light on nucleation mechanisms to control morphology of metal nanoparticles for imaging applications.

Makhija plans to attend graduate school after he earns his B.S. in biomedical engineering in May 2014.