Nature magazine publishes particle research from thesis of Hayward '99

After submitting their theses, most seniors aspire to earn the commendation of their department and high marks from their professors.

But the discoveries made by chemical engineering major Ryan Hayward '99 truly raised the eyebrows of his advisors and proved to be the pinnacle of his Princeton academic experience. Hayward's findings were judged to be so important that they were published March 2 in the prestigious science magazine, Nature.

Chemical engineering professors Dudley Saville and Ilhan Aksay advised Hayward on his thesis. Building on their research, Hayward discovered how to use ultraviolet light in conjunction with electrical hydrodynamics to control the arrangement of particles on a surface.

"My contribution was to figure out what the mechanism was that was allowing light to affect the particles and then to use this effect to control the organization of the particles," Hayward said.

"We knew that there was a phenomenon present," Saville said. "We didn't know exactly what to expect." The discovery is so promising that an application has been submitted to patent the technology, he added.

Saville and Aksay said they were optimistic about the importance of Hayward's discoveries. "Most senior theses don't generate this kind of insight," Saville said. "So Ryan and I and Aksay decided that we would submit a paper to either Science or Nature. It got pretty high marks right away."

Hayward said he was very pleased that his work was published. "It's very exciting — a great honor," he said. "For the most part I feel like it was largely a case of being in the right place at the right time. I feel pretty lucky."

The technology Hayward has developed could aid in the manufacture of tiny electrical devices that would allow new possibilities in biotechnology. "The ability to arrange things on a scale could potentially be useful in several different areas — biodevices, optical or microelectrical devices," Hayward said.

Chemical engineering professor Jeff Carbeck noted a specific application for Hayward's technology. "You could put onto the beads that Ryan demonstrated how to assemble a protein that would bind to a virus, and the antibody could be detected by changes in the way particles assemble," he said.

The technology is being advertised to the U.S. Department of Defense, Carbeck said, as it potentially could help "to detect the presence of chemical or biological threat agents in a military or civilian setting."

In seeking out a student to continue their research, Saville and Aksay felt that Hayward was well-prepared to take the challenge. "He was our best student in the department," Aksay said. "The problem was a very difficult one, and we wanted to make sure that we could pick a student that could handle it. It was a graduate-level problem."

Nevertheless, as Saville pointed out, "Ryan picked us. The faculty makes up a list of topics and descriptions that's circulated to the students. In the end it was Ryan's choice."

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After accepting the topic, Hayward worked closely with Aksay and Saville, though he conducted most of the research himself. "He did all the work and made the observations," Aksay said. "We met with him weekly, discussed his results, analyzed them. It was a three-way interaction. He gave us ideas, we gave him ideas. He did all the physical work and the thinking. In the analysis, we all shared it, we motivated each other."

"They were very helpful in helping me keep an open mind," Hayward said.

While at Princeton, Hayward was social chair of Campus Club, was a DJ at WPRB and was involved with SVC.

Hayward is presently pursuing his graduate studies in block co-polymers at the University of California, Santa Barbara.