Michael Steven Strano is an American chemical engineer and the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He focuses on materials that behave differently at very small scales. In 2016, Strano became the editor-in-chief of the journal Carbon. In 2017, he was chosen as a member of the National Academy of Engineering "for his work in nanotechnology, including creating sensors that help with human health and devices that use solar and thermal energy."
Education
Strano was born around 1976. He earned a bachelor's degree (with the highest honors) in chemical engineering from Polytechnic University in Brooklyn in 1997. He later earned a doctorate degree (with the highest honors) in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware in 2002, with guidance from Professor Hank Foley.
Career
Strano worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Chemistry and Physics at Rice University, where he worked with Richard E. Smalley. In 2003, he became an Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2007, he joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he became the Charles and Hilda Roddey Professor in Chemical Engineering and later the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering.
Research
Strano has conducted a lot of research on carbon nanotubes and has many patents related to this topic. He has studied the surface chemistry of carbon nanotubes and how this chemistry affects their ability to conduct electricity, block electricity, or act as insulators.
Strano is especially interested in using carbon nanotubes to improve plants. His team calls this method "plant nanobionics," which involves using nanotubes to help plants function better.
Strano began studying plant cells to learn how they might be used to create self-repairing solar cells. Scientists wanted to understand how chloroplasts in plants convert sunlight into energy, hoping this knowledge could help design better solar cells. They developed a method called lipid exchange envelope penetration (LEEP) to deliver materials like nanoceria into chloroplasts by passing through the hydrophobic membrane that surrounds them. The same method can also be used to deliver carbon nanotubes into chloroplasts. This helps plants respond to a wider range of light wavelengths and increases their ability to perform photosynthesis.
Another technique, vascular infusion, allows researchers to deliver nanoparticles into plants by applying a solution to the bottom of a leaf. The nanoparticles enter through the stomata and reach the chloroplasts, improving the flow of electrons during photosynthesis.
Strano’s team has used carbon nanotubes to create plants that can act as sensors. These plants can detect chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide, TNT, and sarin. When a target molecule binds to a polymer in the nanotube, the nanotube begins to glow.
In 2017, Strano developed living watercress plants whose leaves contained nanoparticles of an enzyme called luciferase. This enzyme, found in fireflies, helps plants release stored energy as light. In 2019, Strano and architect Sheila Kennedy were part of 62 design teams in the 2019–2020 Design Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Their project was a model of a house designed to use plants as light sources, featuring lightwells in the ceilings, ports for pollinators, and retaining walls filled with soil.
Strano is a co-editor, along with Shawn M. Walsh, of the book Robotic systems and autonomous platforms: advances in materials and manufacturing (2019).
Honors and awards
- 2016, World's Most Important Scientific Minds of 2015, Thomson Reuters
- 2016, Highly Cited Scientists in Materials Science, Thomson Reuters
- 2009, Popular Science's 'Brilliant 10'
- 2008, Colburn Award, American Institute of Chemical Engineers
- 2008, Young Investigator Award, Office of Naval Research
- 2008, Outstanding Investigator Award, Materials Research Society
- 2007, Unilever Award, American Chemical Society
- 2006, Beckman Young Investigators Award
- 2006, Coblentz Award for Molecular Spectroscopy
- 2005, Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship