Dr. Alex Punnoose joined the faculty at Boise State University in 2002. Before
coming to the United States, Dr. Punnoose was educated in India, earning a B.S in Physics
from Mahatma Gandhi University, and then his M.S. in Solid State Physics and Ph.D. in
Physics from Aligarh University. In addition to teaching and mentoring students from the
undergraduate to the post-doctoral level, he serves in many capacities at the University,
and in the greater scientific community. 

In 2005, Dr. Punnoose received the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious award
for early career faculty — a $400,000 grant that recognizes his effectiveness at
integrating education and research. The CAREER award, given to outstanding faculty from
across the nation who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century,
supports Dr. Punnoose’s research. The grant also provides funding for as many as 15 Boise
State graduate and undergraduate students to work in his lab over five years. 

Dr. Punnoose's lab is researching ways to make semiconductor devices smaller
(nanotechnology), more effective by making use of the magnetic behavior of electrons
(spintronics) and by manipulating the optical properties of materials (photonics), and by
investigating the interactions of the high surface area nanoparticles with
gaseous/chemical environments (nanosensors; catalysis) and with biological systems
including eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells (nano-biotechnology). All of these research
areas are at the intersection of physics, chemistry, materials science, biology, and
engineering, and require collaboration with experts in these disciplines. Among his new
research endeavors is a collaboration with Boise State biology professors in a new area
of nano-biotechnology. This collaboration led to the project, “Novel Nanoparticles That
Kill Cancer Cells”, being honored as a finalist for Early-Stage Innovation of the Year at
the 2010 Idaho Innovation Awards.

Articles

PDF

Concentration Dependence of Magnetic Moment in Ce1-xFexO2 (with Geoffrey L. Beausoleil II, Aaron Thurber, S. S. Rao, Gordon A. Alanko, and Charles Hanna), Journal of Applied Physics (2012)

In this study, we examined the impact of iron doping on the structural, chemical, and...

 

PDF

Size, Surface Structure, and Doping Effects on Ferromagnetism in SnO2 (with Gordon A. Alanko, Aaron Thurber, and Charles Hanna), Journal of Applied Physics (2012)

The effects of crystallite size, surface structure, and dopants on the magnetic properties of semiconducting...

 

PDF

Unusual Crystallite Growth and Modification of Ferromagnetism Due to Aging in Pure and Doped Zno Nanoparticles (with Aaron Thurber, Gordon A. Alanko, Geoffrey L. Beausoleil II, Kelsey Dodge, and Charles Hanna), Journal of Applied Physics (2012)

We report the unusual growth of pure and Fe-doped ZnO nanoparticles prepared by forced hydrolysis...

 

Link

Tuning the Properties of ZnO, Hematite, and Ag Nanoparticles by Adjusting the Surface Charge (with Jianhui Zhang, Guanjun Dong, Aaron Thurber, Yayi Hou, Min Gu, Dmitri Tenne, and Charles Hanna), Advanced Materials (2012)

Nanomaterials have become a central focus of scientific research and technological development over the last...

 

PDF

A Large-Scale Synthesis and Characterization of Quaternary CuInxGa1−xS2 Chalcopyrite Nanoparticles via Microwave Batch Reactions (with Chivin Sun, Richard D. Westover, Gary Long, Cyril Bajracharya, Jerry D. Harris, Rene G. Rodriguez, and Joshua J. Pak), International Journal of Chemical Engineering (2011)

Various quaternary CuInxGa1−xS2 (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) chalcopyrite nanoparticles have been prepared from molecular...

 

View More »

Presentations

Synthesis and Characterization of Transition Metal-Doped ZnO (with Lytia A. Smith, Theron R. Fereday, Jerry D. Harris, Jason Brotherton, Aaron Thurber, William B. Knowlton, and Brian J. Frost), National Meeting/American Chemical Society (2010)
 

Antimicrobial Effects and Mechanisms of Toxicity of Metal Oxide Nanoparticles (with Keven Feris, Jason Bell, Madhu Kongara, Isaac Coombs, Hua Wang, Cory Hanley, and Denise Wingett), Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Pacific Division, 88th Annual Meeting (2007)

Recent indications of nanoscale (<100 >nm) metal oxide toxicity and their increased presence in the...