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Donald L. Kellis

Graduate Research Assistant

Micron School of Materials Science and Engineering

Donald Kellis

Donald joined the Nanoscale Materials and Device Group in the late fall of 2010. A non-traditional student, Donald worked diligently towards a Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering which he earned in the spring of 2018. Initially working with the nanofabrication team, Donald created and characterized nanoscale devices for team research. During his undergraduate studies Donald produced one first author publication and four co-authored publications.

Currently, Donald has been accepted into the accelerated Master’s of Science program at Boise State University where he will be working with the DNA Nanotechnology Team. Donald will be working on Fluorescent Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) systems.  FRET offers the potential of creating novel optical devices to be utilized in integrated circuity, bio-sensors, energy harvesting, and quantum coherence systems.

Education

  • B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, Boise State University, May 2018.

Instruments and Techniques

Equipment

  • LEO 1430-VP Scanning Electron Microscope
  • Bruker Dimension 3100 Atomic Force Microscope with Nanoscope IV Controller
  • Bruker MultiMode 8 Atomic Force Microscope with Nanoscope V Controller
  • Kyle R See custom built Physical Vapor Deposition Tool
  • Nanometrics 212 Thin Film Systems 7200-1453 REV1 nanospec
  • Varian Cary Eclipse Fluorescence Spectrophotometer
  • Cary 5000 UV-Vis-NIR Spectrophotometer
  • Horiba Fluorolog-3 Spectrofluorometer
  • Alpha Innotech FluoroChem Q MultiImage III
  • Eppendorf
    • BioPhotometer plus
    • Mastercycler personal
    • 5418 Centrifuge
    • 543R Centrifuge
  • Hoefer Gel Electophoresis unit
  • Labconco Centrivap DNA Concentrator
  • Coherent Verdi Ti:Sapphire oscillator (35 fs, 80MHz repetition rate)
    and 4W 1KHz Coherent Legend Elite regenerative amplifier
  • Coherent OperA Solo 50 fs optical parametric amplifier (800 nm pump)
    with a sum frequency module
  • Light Conversion (serviced by Coherent) 1 ps 400 nm pump optical
    parametric amplifier

Techniques

  • Electron Beam Lithography
  • Photolithography
  • Wafer Processing
  • Nano-pattern generation
  • AFM imaging
  • DNA Origami synthesis
  • Fluorescence kinetics
  • Fluorescence imaging
  • Gel Electrophoresis

Publications

Peer Reviewed Journal Publications

 

  • Brittany L. Cannon, Donald L. Kellis, Lance K. Patten, Paul H. Davis, Jeunghoon Lee, Elton
    Graugnard, Bernard Yurke, and William B. Knowlton, "Coherent Exciton Delocalization in a Two-
    State DNA-Templated Dye Aggregate System” The Journal of Physical Chemistry A 121: 6905-
    6916 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpca.7b04344
  • Donald L. Kellis, Sarah M. Rehn, Brittany L. Cannon, Paul H. Davis, Elton Graugnard, Jeunghoon
    Lee, Bernard Yurke, and William B. Knowlton, “DNA-mediated excitonic upconversion FRET
    switching” New Journal of Physics 17: 115007 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/17/11/115007
  • Brittany L. Cannon, Donald L. Kellis, Paul H. Davis, Jeunghoon Lee, Wan Kuang, William L.
    Hughes, Elton Graugnard, Bernard Yurke, and William B. Knowlton,”Excitonic AND Logic Gates
    on DNA Brick Nanobreadboards”ACS Photonics 2: 398-404 (2015).
    https://doi.org/10.1021/ph500444d
  • Graugnard, Elton; Kellis, Donald L.; Bui, Hieu; Barnes, Stephanie; Kuang, Wan; Lee, Jeunghoon; Hughes, William L.; Knowlton, William; and Yurke, Bernard. (2012). “DNA-Controlled Excitonic Switches”. Nano Letters, 12(4), 2117-2122, http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nl3004336
  • Cannon, Brittany L.; Kellis, Donald L.; Davis, Paul H.; Lee, Jeunghoon; Kuang, Wan; Hughes, William L.; Graugnard, Elton; Yurke, Bernard; Knowlton, William B.. (2015). “Excitonic AND Logic on DNA Brick Nanobreadboards”. ACS Photonics, 2(3), 398-404, http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ph500444d
  • Kellis, Donald L.; Rehn, Sarah M.; Cannon, Brittany L.; Davis, Paul H.; Graugnard, Elton; Lee, Jeunghoon; Yurke, Bernard; Knowlton, William B.. (2015). “DNA-mediated excitonic upconversion FRET switching”. New Journal of Physics, 17, 115007, http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/17/11/115007
  • Cannon, Brittany L.; Kellis, Donald L.; Patten, Lance K.; Davis, Paul H.; Lee, Jeunghoon; Graugnard, Elton; Yurke, Bernard; Knowlton, William B.. (2017). “Coherent Exciton Delocalization in a Two-State DNA-Templated Dye Aggregate System”. J. Phys. Chem. A,  http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpca.7b04344
  • Cannon, Brittany L.; Kellis, Donald L.; Patten, Lance K.; Davis, Paul H.; Lee, Jeunghoon; Graugnard, Elton; Yurke, Bernard; Knowlton, William B.. (2018). “Large Davydov Splitting and Strong Fluorescence Supression: An Investigation of Exciton Delocalization in DNA-Templated Holliday Junction Dye Aggregates”. J. Phys. Chem. A,  http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpca.7b12668
  • Kellis, Donald L.; Sarter, Christopher; Cannon, Brittany L.; Davis, Paul H.; Graugnard, Elton; Lee, Jeunghoon; Pensack, Ryan D.; Kolmar, Theresa; Jäschke, Andres; Yurke, Bernard; Knowlton, William B.. (2019). “An All-Optical Excitonic Switch Operated in the Liquid and Solid Phases”. ACS Nano, https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.8b07504
  • Huff, Jonathan S.; Davis, Paul H.; Christy, Allison; Kellis, Donald L.;  Kandadai, Nirmala; Toa, Zi S. D.; Scholes, Gregory D.; Yurke, Bernard; Knowlton, William B.; Pensack, Ryan D.. (2019). “DNA-Templated Aggregates of Strongly Coupled Cyanine Dyes: Nonradiative Decay Governs Exciton Lifetimes”. J. Phys. Chem. Lett., https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b00404

Conference Publications

None at this time.

Conference Presentations and Posters

  • AgNC’s as Acceptor/Donor Pairs in FRET-based Excitonic Waveguides. Donald L. Kellis, Chris Menter, Brittany L. Cannon, Paul H. Davis, Elton Graugnard, William L. Hughes, Wan Kuang, Jeunghoon Lee, Jaswinder K. Sharma, Bernard Yurke, William B. Knowlton; poster presentation at the 11th Annual Conference on Nanoscience (FNANO14), (Snowbird, Utah; April 14-17th, 2014) and the 11th Annual Boise State University Undergraduate Research Conference (Boise, Idaho; April 21, 2014).
  • Polymer Encapsulation and DNA Funcionalization of UpconversionNanoparticles. Patricia Johnson, Chris Menter, Donald Kellis, Brittany Cannon, Paul Davis, William B. Knowlton, Bernard Yurke, Wan Kuang, Jeunghoon Lee; poster presentation at the 3rd Annual Summer Undergraduate Research Conference, (Boise, Idaho; August 2nd, 2013) and the 2013 Idaho INBRE Conference (Moscow, Idaho: August 5th – 7th, 2013).
  • Effects of DNA Condensing Agents on DNA Nanostructures. Donald L. Kellis, Hieu Bui, Wan Kuang, Elton Graugnard, Jeunghoon Lee, William L. Hughes, William B. Knowlton, Bernard Yurke; poster presentation at the 10th Annual Conference on Nanoscience (FNANO13), (Snowbird, Utah; April 15-18th, 2013).
  • DNA-Based Excitonic AND Logic Gate. Brittany L. Cannon, Donald L. Kellis, Elton Graugnard, Wan Kuang, Jeunghoon Lee, William L. Hughes, Bernard Yurke, William B. Knowlton; poster presentation at the 10th Annual Conference on Nanoscience (FNANO13), (Snowbird, Utah; April 15-18th, 2013).
  • Excitonic Waveguides Switchable by DNA Strand Invasion. Elton Graugnard, Donald L. Kellis, Hieu Bui, Stephanie Barnes, Wan Kuang, Jeunghoon Lee, William L. Hughes, William B. Knowlton, Bernard Yurke; invited talk at the 9th Annual Conference on Nanoscience (FNANO12), (Snowbird, Utah; April 16-19th, 2012).
  • Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer by Strand Invasion. Stephanie Barnes, Donald Kellis, Hieu Bui, William Hughes, Bernard Yurke, William Knowlton, Wan Kuang, Jeunghoon Lee and Elton Graugnard; poster presentation at the 17th International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming (Caltech, Pasadena, California; September 19-23th, 2011).
  • Synthesis of End thiolated DNA Origami Nanotubes Decorated with Gold Nanoparticles. Lejmarc Snowball, Donald L. Kellis, Craig Onodera, Heiu Bui, Jason Brotherton, Nick Schmidt, Chris Buu, Stephanie Barnes, Elton Graugnard, William L. Hughes, Bernard Yurke, Wan Kuang, Jeunghoon Lee, and William B. Knowlton; poster presentation at the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) Program poster session (Boise, Idaho; July 28, 2011).

Honors and Awards

  • Received the Higher Education Research Council (HERC) Fellowship through Boise State University in Spring of 2016.
  • Received the Undergraduate Researcher of the Year award from Boise State University in Spring of 2018.