Ashton Enrriques

Ashton Enrriques has always loved science, and the interdisciplinary nature of materials science led him to major in Materials Science & Engineering here at Boise State University. Ashton spent most of his childhood growing up in California’s San Francisco Bay Area. However, his family eventually relocated to Star, Idaho, where he attended Eagle High School, graduating in 2018. After completing his freshman year at Boise State, Ashton was brought on as an undergraduate research assistant in the SSL in June of 2019. Eager to contribute, Ashton spent his first year in the lab learning a variety of AFM (atomic force microscopy) modes, as well as assisting the more senior students as much as possible. Ashton has been trained on the SSL’s suite of Bruker AFMs – Dimension 3100, MultiMode 8, and Dimension Icon FastScan (both ambient and glovebox). Now in his senior year, Ashton is leading multiple ongoing projects. He is a primary researcher in a collaborative project with the University of North Dakota that is using co-localized scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and nanoindentation/nanomechanical property mapping to correlate chemical composition with the elastic modulus of Bakken shales. Ashton has also taken over a collaboration with Dr. Uzer in the Mechanical Biomedical Engineering department project started by former SSL student Jesse Schimpf. The project focuses on the nanomechanical properties of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) nuclei in response to applied mechanical forces, directed structural knockouts, and/or pharmaceuticals. In addition to these projects, Ashton also trains other students to use the SSL’s AFMs, in particular our new AFM-IR system, and performs routine lab imaging for industry partners and research groups across campus.

Publications

Peer Reviewed Journal Publications

A. E. Enrriques, S. Howard, R. Timsina, N. K. Khadka, A. N. Hoover, A. E. Ray, L. Ding, C. Onwumelu, S. Nordeng, L. Mainali, G. Uzer, and P. H. Davis, “Atomic Force Microscopy Cantilever-Based Nanoindentation: Mechanical Property Measurements at the Nanoscale in Air and Fluid” JoVE 190: e64497 (2022). https://www.jove.com/t/64497/atomic-force-microscopy-cantilever-based-nanoindentation-mechanical