NIA | Langley Professors

University of Virginia Langley Professor

Mool G. Gupta, Ph.D.
Director, the NSF Center for Lasers and Plasmas

Research Interests and Specialty Areas:

“At NIA we are working at the cutting edge of technology.
It's exciting work and it has real-world application. Nowhere
else do we have seven universities working together with NASA and
the entire NASA infrastructure. It's a unique experience.”

Growing up in India, Dr. Mool Gupta knew exactly what he wanted to do: physics. As a field of study, there were few equals; and there were role models aplenty: career scientists the young Gupta admired. What eventually drew Dr. Gupta abroad, specifically to the United States, was strong institutional support for high-quality research.

That research continued at Washington State University, where Dr. Gupta completed his Ph.D. Then it was on to the California Institute of Technology and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Gupta subsequently worked at Eastman Kodak Company for 17 years as a senior scientist and group leader, as well as an adjunct professor in materials science and engineering at Cornell University.

Dr. Gupta came to Virginia to become a program director for materials science and engineering at the Applied Research Center in Newport News, as well as a research professor in Old Dominion University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His latest post is that of director of the Center for Lasers and Plasmas at the University of Virginia, a National Science Foundation Research Center.

Dr. Gupta is editor-in-chief for the CRC Handbook of Photonics, has authored more than 85 research papers, possesses 25 patents and has been inducted into Kodak’s Inventors Gallery.

Unique Materials and Sensors

These days, Dr. Gupta is considering the impacts of nanotechnology, everything from super-supercomputers the size of dice, or smaller, to superstrong fibers for use in next-generation building materials that are as light as a spider’s web but fantastically robust or superthin metals that weigh not tons, but ounces or pounds, and are hundreds of times stronger than steel.

Also possible are plastics that conduct electricity and superslick coatings that are nearly frictionless. One day, nanotech-created materials may change color and transparency on demand, and self-repair, self-clean and look freshly painted indefinitely.

As particle sizes shrink to atomic scale, electronic, optical, magnetic, mechanical and thermal properties of materials will likely change radically. Nanosize particles also possess very large surface areas for enhanced interactions for various applications. These novel properties, combined with the development of methods for the fabrication of nanostructures, will allow for the development of unique types of advanced sensors, actuators and microsystems.

A Spate of Next-Generation Projects

NIA and UVA students are currently conducting sponsored research in very high-speed laser applications, as well as in laser-related surface processing and hardening, alloying, cladding, annealing, doping, crystallization and decontamination.

Other projects involve investigation of potential biomedical applications; laser processing of materials; micro-machining and welding; laser ablation and multi-energy processing; spectroscopic diagnostics; thin-film coatings and plasma technology. Dr. Gupta is also overseeing studies of more effective manufacture and integration of carbon nanotubes, nanocomposites and nanoparticles.

One of Dr. Gupta’s primary goals is to build a strong partnership among the University of Virginia, the National Institute of Aerospace and NASA Langley to boost third-party funding, including monies from the private sector. The industrial partnership is very important, Dr. Gupta believes, and should lead to a spate of next-generation projects that could accelerate nanotechnology adoption nationally.

"It took hundreds of years for the industrial revolution to occur.
The same kind of revolution on the nanoscale is occurring right now,
in just a matter of a relative few years. And it's accelerating.
Within 15 years, nanotech will bring major, major changes."

The NSF Center for Lasers and Plasmas

The Center is a joint venture with the NSF, NASA, the NIA, and the Universities of Virginia, Columbia, Michigan at Ann Arbor and Southern Michigan. It is one of about 40 National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers, with a specific mission to build on existing studies in plasma and photon processing and to develop a science, engineering and technology base for laser and plasma processing of materials, devices and systems.

The goal of the Center is to utilize recent developments in nanomaterials and nanostructures to develop advanced sensors, actuators and microsystems for NASA and other collaborators.

New types of advanced sensors and improvements in current sensors can be made using various types of nanomaterials and nanostructures. Some of these sensors include gas and bio-chemical sensors and micro fluidics, physical parameter measurement sensors, such as pressure, temperature, acceleration, electric and magnetic fields, among others.

The Center’s research initiatives include

Thin-film coatings using electron beam, sputtering, laser ablation and chemical vapor deposition
Nanomaterials processing and incorporation in various matrixes
Lithography based on optical and electron beams for patterning and replication
Photonic device fabrication, including fiber optic applications
Laser processing of materials
Device characterization and applications

Current projects include

Carbon nanotubes based nanocomposites for electromagnetic shielding and advanced sensor applications
Fullerenes and carbon nanotubes for organic solar cell applications
Photonic structures for color and sensing applications

Contact Information: E-mail | (757) 325-6850 | Website