Nian X. Sun
COE Distinguished Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Affiliated Faculty, Chemical Engineering
Affiliated Faculty, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Contact
- nian@ece.northeastern.edu
- 417 Dana Research Center
360 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
Social Media
Office
- 617.373.3351
Related Links
Research Focus
New magnetic and magnetoelectric materials and device physics; integrated magnetic, ferroelectric and multiferroic materials and microsystems for sensing, memory, power, RF and microwave electronics; novel electrochemical sensors for sensing different pathogens and biomarkers for the diagnosis of various diseases, including COVID-19, Alzheimer’s disease, lung cancer, drug abuse, diabetes, etc.
About
Nian Sun is professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and of Bioengineering, Director of the W.M. Keck Laboratory for Integrated Ferroics, Northeastern University, and founder and chief technical advisor of Winchester Technologies, LLC. He received his Ph.D. degree from Stanford University. Prior to joining Northeastern University, he was a Scientist at IBM and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. Dr. Sun was the recipient of the Humboldt Research Award, NSF CAREER Award, ONR Young Investigator Award, the Søren Buus Outstanding Research Award, Outstanding Translational Research Award, etc. His research interests include novel magnetic, ferroelectric and multiferroic materials, devices and microsystems, novel gas sensors and systems, etc. He has over 280 publications and over 30 patents and patent applications. One of his papers was selected as the “ten most outstanding full papers in the past decade (2001~2010) in Advanced Functional Materials”. Dr. Sun has given over 180 plenary/keynote/invited presentations and seminars. He is an editor of Sensors, and IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, and a fellow of the IEEE, Institute of Physics, and of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
Education
- PhD, Stanford University, 2002
Honors & Awards
- Outstanding Translational Research Award, COE, 2020
- Humboldt Research Award, 2019
- Fellow, IEEE, 2019
- First Prize, Create the Future Design Contest, NASA Tech Briefs, 2018
- W.M. Keck Foundation Award, 1M$, 2014
- Fellow, the Institute of Engineering and Technology, 2013
- Fellow, the Institute of Physics, 2012
- Søren Buus Outstanding Research Award, 2012
- Ten Most Outstanding Papers in the Past Decade (2001~2010) in Advanced Functional Materials, 2010
- US Air Force SFFP Fellowship, 2010
- US Air Force SFFP Fellowship, 2009
- NSF CAREER Award, 2008
- ONR Young Investigator Award, 2007
- First Prize, IDEMA Fellowship $25,000, 2000
- President’s Fellowship, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), 1996
- Outstanding Graduate of the Institute of Metal Research (CAS), 1996
- Outstanding Graduate of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1993
Research Overview
New magnetic and magnetoelectric materials and device physics; integrated magnetic, ferroelectric and multiferroic materials and microsystems for sensing, memory, power, RF and microwave electronics; novel electrochemical sensors for sensing different pathogens and biomarkers for the diagnosis of various diseases, including COVID-19, Alzheimer’s disease, lung cancer, drug abuse, diabetes, etc.
Advanced Materials and Microsystems Laboratory
We are a group of scientists working at the cutting edge on ultra-sensitive and highly specific gas sensors and systems, magnetic, multiferroic, ferroelectric, thermoelectric, and other advanced materials and microsystems. Specifically, we work on materials, devices and microsystems for gas sensing for biomedical diagnosis, magnetic sensing, neural magnetic sensing and stimulation, different tunable RF/microwave components, including thin-film frequency selective limiters, magnetoelectric antennas, tunable inductors, filters, phase shifters, isolators, circulators, integrated thermoelectric materials and devices, vibration and wireless energy harvesting, etc.
W.M. Keck Laboratory for Integrated Ferroics
The W.M. Keck Laboratory for Integrated Ferroics was made possible by a generous grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, for the purpose of investigating ultra-sensitive magnetic sensors and nanofabricated neural probes for electro-magneto-brain activity mapping (EM-BAM). Our research interests include novel integrated magnetic, ferroelectric and multiferroic materials and microsystems for sensing, memory, power, RF and microwave electronics. Specifically, we work on materials and microsystems for biomagnetic sensing, micromagnetic neural stimulation, room-temperature electro-magneto-encephalography, different tunable RF/microwave components, including multiferroic antennas, tunable inductors, filters, phase shifters, isolators, circulators, etc., integrated thermoelectric materials and devices, materials and devices for vibration energy harvesting applications, etc.
Selected Research Projects
- Disease Surveillance with Multi-modal Sensor Network & Data Analytics
- – Co-Principal Investigator, Trinity Awards
- Novel Implantable Smart Magnetoelectric NanoRFIDs for Large-Scale Neural Magnetic Recording and Modulation
- – Principal Investigator, National Institutes of Health
- NSF Nanosystems Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Translational Applications of Nanoscale Multiferroic Systems (TANMS)
- – Co-Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation Engineering Research Centers
Research Centers and Institutes
- Director, W.M. Keck Laboratory for Integrated Ferroics
- Director, Advanced Materials and Microsystems Laboratory
- Center for Translational Applications of Nanoscale Multiferroic Systems (TANMS)
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- Zaeimbashi, M., Nasrollahpour, M., Khalifa, A., Romano, A., Liang, X., Chen, H., Sun, N., Matyushov, A., Lin H., Dong, C., Xu, Z., Mittal, A., Martos-Repath, I., Jha, G., Mirchandani, N., Das, D., Onabajo, M., Shrivastava, A., Cash, S., Sun, N.X. (2021). Ultra-compact Dual-band Smart NEMS Magnetoelectric Antennas for Simultaneous Wireless Energy Harvesting and Magnetic Field Sensing. Nature Communications, 12, 3141
- Emam, S., Nasrollahpour, M., Colarusso, B., Cai, X., Grant, S., Kulkarni, P., Ekenseair, A., Gharagouzloo, C., Ferris, C., Sun, N.X. (2020). Detection of Presymptomatic Alzheimer’s disease through Breath Biomarkers. Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 12, e12088
- Nan, T., Anderson, T.J., Gibbons, J., Hwang, K., Campbell, N., Zhou, H., Dong, Y.Q., Kim, G.Y., Shao, D.F., Paudel, T.R., Reynolds, N., Wang, X.J., Sun, N.X., Tsymbal, E.Y., Choi, S.Y., Rzchowski, M.S., Kim, Y.B., Ralph, D.C., Eom, C.B. (2019). Anisotropic Spin-Orbit Torque Generation in Epitaxial SrIrO3 by Symmetry Design. PNAS, 116(33), 16186-16191
- Zhang, Y., Cai, D., Zhao, C., Zhu, M., Gao, Y., Chen, Y., Liang, X., Chen, H., Wang, J., Wei, Y., Sun, N.X. (2020). Nonreciprocal Isolating Bandpass Filter With Enhanced Isolation Using Metallized Ferrite. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 68, 5307-5316
- Shah, P.J., Bas, D.A., Lisenkov, I., Matyushov, A., Sun, N.X., Page, M.R., Page, M.R. (2020). Giant Nonreciprocity of Surface Acoustic Waves Enabled by the Magnetoelastic Interaction. Science Advances, 6, eabc5648
- Emori, S., Gray, B.A., Jeon, H.‐M., Peoples, J., Schmitt, M., Mahalingam, K., Hill, M., McConney, M.E., Gray, M.T., Alaan, U.S., Bornstein, A.C., Shafer, P., N’Diaye, A.T., Arenholz, E., Haugstad, G., Meng, K.‐Y., Yang, F., Li, D., Mahat, S., Cahill, D.G., Dhagat, Jander, P.A., Sun, N.X., Suzuki, Y., Howe, B.M. (2017). Coexistence of Low Damping and Strong Magnetoelastic Coupling in Epitaxial Spinel Ferrite Thin Films. Advanced Materials, 29, 1701130
- Nan, T., Lin, H., Gao, Y., Matyushov, A., Yu, G., Chen, H., Sun, N., Wei, S., Wang, Z., Li, M., Wang, X., Belkessam, A., Guo, R., Chen, B., Zhou, J., Qian, Z., Hui, Y., Rinaldi, M., McConney, M.E., Howe, B.M., Hu, Z., Jones, J.G., Brown, G.J., Sun, N.X. (2017). Acoustically Actuated Ultra-Compact NEMS Magnetoelectric Antennas. Nature Communications, 8, 296
- Liu, M., Zhou, Z., Nan, T., Howe, B.M., Brown, G.J., Sun, N.X. (2013). Voltage Tuning of Ferromagnetic Resonance with Bistable Magnetization Switching in Energy-Efficient Magnetoelectric Composites. Advanced Materials, 25, 1435
- Lou, J., Liu, M., Reed, D., Ren, Y., Sun, N.X. (2009). Giant Electric Field Tuning of Magnetism in Novel Multiferroic FeGaB/Lead Zinc Niobate Lead Titanate Heterostructures. Advanced Materials, 21, 4711
- Liu, M., Obi, O., Lou, J., Chen, Y., Cai, Z., Stoute, S., Espanol, M., Lew, M., Situ, X., Ziemer, K.S., Harris, V.G., Sun, N.X. (2009). Giant Electric Field Tuning of Magnetic Properties in Multiferroic ferrite/ferroelectric Heterostructures. Advanced Functional Materials, 19, 1826
Jan 24, 2023
Faculty and Staff Awards 2023
Congratulations to all the winners of the faculty and staff awards, and to everyone for their hard work and dedication during the 2022-2023 academic school year. COE Distinguished Faculty Award Yun Raymond Fu, ECE Auroop Ganguly, CEE Luke Landherr, ChE Sinan Müftü, MIE Mark Niedre, BioE Alison Nogueira, Co-op Nian Sun, ECE Constantinos Mavroidis Translational […]
Jun 09, 2022
Creating NME Antennas for Portable Electronic Applications
ECE Professor Nian X. Sun was awarded a patent for “Nanoscale radio frequency magnetoelectric antenna.” Abstract Source: USPTO A nanomechanical magnetoelectric antenna includes a thin film heterostructure that has a magnetic element and a piezoelectric element. The heterostructure is suspended on a substrate and is capable of resonating at acoustic resonance frequencies. In the transmission […]
Apr 28, 2022
FY23 TIER 1 Award Recipients
Congratulations to the 15 COE faculty and affiliates who were recipients of FY23 TIER 1 Interdisciplinary Research Seed Grants for 13 different projects.
Jan 11, 2022
Creating a Device for Early Detection of Disease Using Exhaled Breath
ECE Professor Nian X. Sun and ChE Associate Teaching Professor Adam Ekenseair were awarded a patent for “Molecularly-imprinted electrochemical sensors.”
Jul 07, 2021
Tracking Potential Outbreaks Through Wastewater
ECE Professor Nian Sun and MIE Professor Hongwei Sun are part of a team, led by Professor Sheree Pagsuyoin of the University of Massachusetts Lowell, which was awarded $660K in pledged funding as one of five third-place winners of the Trinity Awards, for their project, “Disease Surveillance with Multi-modal Sensor Network & Data Analytics”.
Sep 16, 2020
Could Breathalyzers Make Covid Testing Quicker and Easier?
ECE Professor Nian Sun was featured in the Wired.com article “Could Breathalyzers Make Covid Testing Quicker and Easier?” for his efforts in using breathalyzer like devices to detect viral particles.
Sep 10, 2020
Faculty and Staff Awards 2020
Congratulations to all the winners of the faculty and staff awards, and to everyone for their hard work and dedication during the 2019-2020 academic school year.
Jul 23, 2020
Developing VLF Magnetoelectric Antennas for Communication Systems
ECE Professor Nian X. Sun was awarded a patent for creating a “Magnetoelectric very low frequency communication system.”
Jun 04, 2020
Sensors to Detect COVID-19 Diagnosis Instantly
ECE Professor Nian Sun, in collaboration with Jeremy Luban from UMass Medical School, was awarded a $200K NSF RAPID grant for “COVID-19: New Handheld Gas Sensors for Airborne SARS-CoV-2 Virus: Instant COVID-19 Diagnosis from Exhaled Breath.”
Nov 26, 2019
Nian Sun Named IEEE Fellow
ECE Professor Nian Sun has been named an IEEE Fellow for his contributions to integrated magnetic and magnetoelectric materials and devices.