Professor Brian Rodriguez

Brian graduated from North Carolina State University (Raleigh, USA) with a PhD in Physics in 2003 and subsequently held postdoctoral appointments at North Carolina State University and at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (Oak Ridge, USA). In 2007, he received an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship to conduct research at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics (Halle, Germany). Brian joined University College Dublin in January, 2009 as a Lecturer in Nanoscience at the Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research. He was appointed to the School of Physics in October of 2011. He is the author of more than 100 scientific papers in the field of scanning probe microscopy and piezoresponse force microscopy of ferroelectric materials, polar nitride semiconductors, and biological systems.

Current Research Interests

Measuring electrostatic interactions and electromechanical coupling in biological systems at the molecular and cellular levels and in connective tissues with an emphasis on understanding biological structure and function.

Exploring physical interactions at the interface of biological systems and nanoscale materials properties and structure through the use of charged probes and charge-patternable substrates.

Selected Publications

Visualizing Molecular Polar Order in Tissues via Electromechanical Coupling, Denning, D., Alilat, S., Habelitz, S., Fertala, A., and Rodriguez, B.J., Journal of Structural Biology, 180, 409–419, (2012).

Photoreduction of SERS-Active Metallic Nanostructures on Chemically-Patterned Ferroelectric Crystals, Carville, N. C., Manzo, M., Damm, S., Castiella, M., Collins, L., Denning, D., Weber, S. A. L., Gallo, K., Rice, J. H., and Rodriguez, B. J., ACS Nano, 6, 7373–7380, (2012).

Electromechanical properties of dried tendon and iso-electrically focused collagen hydrogels, Denning, D., Abu-Rub, M.T., Zeugolis, D.I., Habelitz, S., Pandit, A., Fertala, A., and Rodriguez, B.J., Acta Biomaterialia, 8, 3073-3079, (2012).

Atomic force microscopy: an enabling nanotechnology for diabetes research, Rodriguez, B. J., and Jarvis, S. P. Book chapter in Nanotechnology & Nanomedicine in Diabetes, edited by L.-A. Le, R.J. Hunter, and V.R. Preedy, Science Publishers, Enfield, New Hampshire, 34-58 (2012).

KPFM and PFM of biological systems, Rodriguez, B. J., and Kalinin, S. V. Book chapter in Kelvin probe force microscopy, edited by S. Sadewasser, Th. Glatzel, Springer Science+Business Media, New York, 243-287 (2012).

Nano-texturedf-assembled aligned collagen hydrogels promote directional neurite guidance and overcome inhibition by myelin associated glycoprotein, Abu-Rub, M.T., Billiar, K.L., van Es, M.H., Knight, A. Rodriguez, B.J., Zeugolis, D.I., McMahon, S., Windebank, A.J., and Pandit, A., Soft Matter, 7, 2770-2781, (2011).

Web-like domain structure formation in single crystal barium titanate, Rodriguez, B. J., Eng, L. M., and Gruverman, A., Applied Physics Letters, 97, 042902, (2010).

Local polarization dynamics in ferroelectric materials, Kalinin, S. V., Morozovska, A. N., Chen, L.-Q., and Rodriguez, B. J., Reports on Progress in Physics, 73, 056502, (2010).

Double-layer mediated electromechanical response of amyloid fibrils in liquid environment, Nikiforov, M. P., Thompson, G. L., Reukov, V. V., Jesse, S., Guo, S., Rodriguez, B. J., Seal, K., Vertegel A. A., and Kalinin, S. V., ACS Nano, 4, 689-698, (2010).

Defect-mediated polarization switching in ferroelectrics and related materials: From mesoscopic mechanisms to atomistic control, Kalinin, S. V., Rodriguez, B. J., Borisevich, A. Y., Baddorf, A. P., Balke, N., Chang, H. J., Chen, L. Q., Choudhury, S., Jesse, S., Maksymovich, P., Nikiforov, M. P., and Pennycook, S. J., Advanced Materials, 22, 314-322 (2010).

Vortex polarization states in nanoscale ferroelectric arrays, Rodriguez, B. J., Gao, X. S., Liu, L. F., Lee, W., Naumov, I. I., Bratkovsky, A. M., Hesse, D., and Alexe, M., Nano Letters, 9, 1127–1131, (2009).

Intermittent contact mode piezoresponse force microscopy in a liquid environment, Rodriguez, B. J., Jesse, S., Habelitz, S., Proksch, R., and Kalinin, S. V., Nanotechnology, 20, 195701, (2009).

Direct imaging of spatial and energy distribution of nucleation centers in ferroelectric materials: 50 years after Landauer, Jesse, S., Rodriguez, B. J., Choudhury, S., Baddorf, A. P., Vrejoiu, I., Hesse, D., Alexe, M., Eliseev, E. A., Morozovska, A. N., Zhang, J., Chen, L. Q., and Kalinin, S. V., Nature Materials, 7, 209-215, (2008).

Dual-frequency resonance-tracking atomic force microscopy, Rodriguez, B. J., Callahan, C., Kalinin, S. V., and Proksch, R., Nanotechnology, 18, 475504, (2007).

Controlling polarization dynamics in a liquid environment: transition from localized to macroscopic switching, Rodriguez, B. J., Jesse, S., Baddorf, A. P., Kim, S.-H., and Kalinin, S. V., Physical Review Letters, 98, 247603, (2007).

High resolution electromechanical imaging of ferroelectric materials in a liquid environment by piezoresponse force microscopy, Rodriguez, B. J., Jesse, S., Baddorf, A. P., and Kalinin, S. V., Physical Review Letters, 96, 237602, (2006).

Electromechanical imaging of biomaterials by scanning probe microscopy, Rodriguez, B. J., Kalinin, S. V., Shin, J., Jesse, S., Grichko, V., Thundat, T., Baddorf, A. P., and Gruverman, A., Journal of Structural Biology, 153, 151-159, (2006).

Domain growth kinetics in lithium niobate single crystals studied by piezoresponse force microscopy, Rodriguez, B. J., Nemanich, R. J., Kingon, A., Gruverman, A., Kalinin, S. V., Terabe, K., Liu, X. Y., and Kitamura, K., Applied Physics Letters, 86, 012906, (2005).