Our Staff

NTUF is home to a highly motivated staff. We draw upon their expertise to offer a superior learning, working and problem-solving environment. A detailed description of our team follows:

Francois Baneyx received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas, Austin. His research interests range from understanding the structure, function and mechanism of action of stress proteins to the identification, characterization, genetic engineering and use of inorganic-binding polypeptides for the fabrication of hybrid nanomaterials and devices.

Alec Pakhomov received his Ph.D. in 1991 from the A.F. Ioffe Physical Technical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences.  From 1981-2001 he was with the Ioffe Institute, along with holding a few visiting positions (1992-2002).  From 2002-2009 he was with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, before joining the NTUF in 2009. His research background includes magnetic and electronic materials, spin-electronic phenomena, materials and device physics at nanoscale, thin films, nanoparticles, and nanostructures.

Dr. Pakhomov provides full oversight of NTUF operations and is responsible for user training on the AFM.

Paul Wallace, Research Engineer

Paul M. Wallace earned his Ph.D. degree in Physical Chemistry at the University of Washington and became a research scientist in the Nanotech User Facility in 2007. His expertise includes optical microscopes and image processing. Dr. Wallace is responsible for the soft lithography workshop, user training on Raman and confocal microscopes.

Xiaoxia Gao, Research Engineer

Xiaoxia Gao received her Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from the University of Texas, at Austin in 2005. She has worked two years as the facility manager of FEI TECNAI F20 TEM at the Texas Materials Institute and Microelectronic Center, and became a research scientist in the Nanotech User Facility in 2008. She is responsible for user training on TECNAI TEM and TEM sample preparation

Scott Braswell, Research Engineer

Scott Braswell received his BS in Biochemistry at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln in 1998.  He worked for six years as a Cytogenetic Technologist, employing bright field and fluorescence microscopy to characterize chromosome lesions.  He received his Masters in Teaching from the University of Washington in 2007.   Scott is responsible for user training in SEM Imaging, E-Beam Lithography, and Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Spectrometry (EDS).

Ethan Allen received his doctorate in neuroscience from the University of Oregon and did postdoctoral research both there and at the University of Texas, Austin. From 1998-2003, Ethan led the Science Education Partnership at the UW Department of Molecular Biotechnology and later at the Institute for Systems Biology.

Ethan develops and coordinates educational, outreach and mentoring activities with the University of Washington Engineering Biomaterials (UWEB) and the Center for Workforce Development (CWD). He is in charge of the NNIN Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU), Research Experience for Teachers (RET), and high school Science for Success (SFS) outreach programs.