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Wm. Christopher Hughes Associate Professor Department of Physics and Astronomy 540.568.8069 hugheswc@jmu.edu Research Page

Education, Honors, Awards

• Associate Professor, James Madison University (2002-present)
• Assistant Professor, James Madison University (1997-2002)
• Post Doctoral Researcher, North Carolina State University (1994-1997)
• Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1993)
• B.S., Davidson College (1988)

Research Interests

• Microfabrication of polymer microfluidics
• Surface modification and characterization of polymer nanocomposites for microfluidics

Research Description

Drs. Chris Hughes and Brian Augustine conduct research on the surface modification of novel nanocomposite polymers and the fabrication of microfluidic devices made from these polymers. Students make various acrylic-based structures by hot-embossing acrylic into silicon masters fabricated by conventional photolithography and crystallographic etching of Si in the JMU clean room. Some are used for bioanalytical devices in collaboration with Dr. James Landers' laboratory at the University of Virginia. Since the ability to control the surface wettability and functionalization in these microchannels will be important in many possible future applications, students are using an oxygen plasma to modify the surface of polyhedral oligomeric silsequioxane (POSS) containing acrylics. A proposed model in which the polymer surface is converted to an inorganic, SiO2-like surface has been developed and is being tested. The initial results from this work were recently published in Langmuir. The results of this and related work from the Augustine-Hughes lab were also presented at the recent Gordon Research Conference on the Physics and Chemistry of Mircofluidics and will be presented by the undergraduate researchers at the upcoming Materials Research Society meeting in Boston.

Selected Recent Publications

• B. H. Augustine, W. C. Hughes, K. J. Zimmermann*, A. J. Figueiredo*, X. Guo, C. C. Chusuei, J. S. Maidment*, “Plasma Surface Modification and Characterization of POSS-Based Nanocomposite Polymeric Thin Films”, Langmuir, 23, 4346 – 4350 (2007)
• Wm. C. Hughes, B. H. Augustine and Gerald R. Taylor. “The Assessment  of the Influence of Summer Research Experiences on Student Academic Performance”, Journal of Materials Education 28(1): 145-150, (2006).
• L. D. Winkler, J. F. Arceo, W. C. Hughes, B. A. DeGraff, and B. H. Augustine. “Quantum Dots: An Experiment for Physical or Materials Chemistry”. J. Chemical Education 82 (11): 1700-1702, (2005).
• David F. Brakke, Daniel M. Downey, Gina MacDonald, William C. Hughes, Leonard A. Van Wyk and Daniel A. Wubah, “Building a Summer Research Community”, Council on Undergraduate Research Quarterly, Sept. 2003, 14-17.

Patents

• "Hybrid Polymers for Functional Tuning of Microfluidic Device Surfaces”, Brian H. Augustine, Wm. Christopher Hughes, James P. Landers, Jerome  P. Ferrance, Joy M. Polefrone, (United States Patent #7,381,471, Awarded 3/3/08)

Last Modified: 07/21/08