🎉 Congratulations to Ken Stiwinter for Winning the IOCN 2025 Best Poster Award! 🎉
- Yiping Zhao
- 2 hours ago
- 1 min read
We are proud to announce that Kenneth Christopher Stiwinter, a graduate student in the Zhao Nano Lab, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Georgia, has been awarded the Best Poster Award at the 5th International Online Conference on Nanomaterials (IOCN 2025), organized by MDPI.
Ken’s award-winning poster, “The Optical and Near-Field Properties of Plasmonic Janus Nanoparticles: An FDTD Study,” presents a detailed computational investigation of Au–SiO₂ Janus nanoparticles, whose asymmetric metal–dielectric interfaces enable polarization-sensitive localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs). Using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, Ken analyzed particle sizes from 10 to 100 nm under multiple illumination polarizations and revealed that:
Near-field enhancement is 3.4× stronger when the electric field is parallel to the Janus interface.
Optimal enhancement occurs at the resonance crossover of absorption and scattering spectra.
Parallel polarization produces up to an 18.7× greater field enhancement than the perpendicular mode.
Au–SiO₂ JPs exhibit redshifted LSPR peaks and polarization-dependent hotspot localization, making them excellent candidates for tunable nanosensors.
The IOCN 2025 conference brought together hundreds of participants worldwide and featured six thematic sections spanning nanomaterials synthesis, nanophotonics, catalysis, simulation, and environmental applications. Ken’s presentation stood out among many high-quality international contributions—an impressive recognition of his innovative research and communication excellence.
👏 Please join us in congratulating Ken on this outstanding achievement!
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