• UTSA Today Feature: Dr. Nash promoted to rank of Professor! Thirty-eight faculty earn tenure, promotion, emeritus recognition.  UTSA Academic Affairs announces the promotion of 38 faculty members, effective September 1.

August 2019

• Dr. Nash selected for the inaugural cohort of APLU IAspire Leadership Academy Fellows in recognition of her distinguished  leadership in STEM. The primary purpose of IAspire Leadership Academy is to develop and train the next generation of underrepresented (URG) leaders in STEM higher education. 

Since early 2019, UTSA was selected as one of 15 public research universities to participate in the National Science Foundation-funded INCLUDES Alliance, Aspire: The National Alliance for Inclusive and Diverse STEM Faculty, its inaugural three-year institutional change effort to help those schools reform their recruitment, hiring and retention practices.  

September 2019

• Dr. Nash had the honor of speaking at the UTSA 50th Anniversary Gala and featured as a "Roadrunner You Should Know." 

March 2019

•  Dr. Nash participates in Women's History Month Activities around campus including Women's Leadership Panel.

February 2019

• The Texas Society for Microscopy (TSM) held its 54th annual meeting February 21 - 23, 2019. The meeting took place at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), H-E-B Student Union with workshops were held on Thursday, February 21 at the Kleberg Advanced Microscopy Center (KAMC) at UTSA.  Dr. Nash, KAMC Director brought greetings on behalf of KAMC and the Department of Physics and Astronomy.  

• Minaski Das, PhD Candidate, Department of Molecular Sciences,  Macquarie University and Node Representative from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP) visits the lab to learn 

• Dr. Nash part of UTSA team working to ensuring all STEM faculty utilize inclusive teaching practices and that institutions increase the diversity of their STEM professoriate.  UTSA named one of 15 public research universities selected to join inaugural Aspire Alliance.

January 2019

• Dr. Nash represents American Physical Society at the CUWiP at Texas A&M Corpus Christi. She gave a workshop on Communication and Negotiating Skills for Women and STEPUP4Women. 

October 2018

• Dr. Nash gives Invited Talk at the 65th Annual AVS meeting in Long Beach, CA. 

• Dr. Nash gave an Invited Talk at the 2018 SACNAS Meeting and meet up several former UTSA graduate students. 

septermber 2018

• UTSA Today Feature Article: Dr. Nash part of team awarded by NSF to study STEM student success. UTSA receives $1.5 million to support STEM student success

July 2018

• Dr. Nash named Interim Director of the Kleberg Advanced Microscopy Center (KAMC) at UTSA.

• Dr. Nash participated in the Faculty Research Development Institute (FRDI) at Indiana University. Two UTSA students participated in their Summer Scholars Institute.

May 2018

• Congratulations to David Cadena on graduating with hi B.Sc. in Physics on May 12, 2018. He is headed off to UC San Diego in the Fall. The FNL lab is proud of you! 

April 2018

• Dr. Nash receives the 2018 UTSA Presidents Distinguished Diversity Award for her efforts in increasing the number of minorities and women in Physics.

• Dr. Nash led the faculty processional for the inauguration of UTSA's 6th President, Dr. Taylor Eighmy.  

February 2018

• Congrats to Daniel Angel on his 2nd place win in the poster competition at the 2018 Emerging Researchers National (ERN) Conference in STEM held in Washington D.C. He presented his research from his REU at Harvard University in the Nanoscience, Physics and Technology category. 

• Dr. Nash is named a "40 under 40" Honoree by the San Antonio Business Journal.

• UTSA Today Feature: Media recognizes rising UTSA superstars

January 2018

Dr. Nash represent American Physical Society at the Arizona State University Conferences for Undergraduate Women. She gave a workshop on Communication and Negotiating Skills for Women and STEPUP4Women. 

August 2017

FNL Group attended LSAMP-CIMA Program closing ceremony at St. Philips College. Keynote speaker and St. Philips College President, Dr. Adena Loston gave us a personal tour of the campus and talked to us about her journey in STEM and her time at NASA.

  June 2017

FNL Group welcomes students from summer programs:

• Welcome LSAMP-CIMA students, Daniel Guarnero, Ashley Hughes and Cheo Lee from Alamo Colleges to the FNL Lab! 

• Welcome ACS Project SEED student Tristin Zamora 

• UTSA Office of Undergraduate Research scholar Emmitt Zamora

May 2017

• Prof. Nash is named "40 under 40" alumni at her alma mater, Dillard University of New Orleans, LA.

April 2017

• Daniel Angel presented his research at the 2017 Undergraduate Research and Inquiry Showcase. 

• Prof. Nash and Dr. Shipley are featured in the news for their NSF project which focuses on light activated nanocoposites for water purification. 

  • On Texas Public Radio: UTSA Helping Create Innovative Water Cleaning Technology

  • On PBS SciTech Now: Water-purifying nanomaterial

  • On Spectrum News: New Light-Activated Nanomaterial Purifies Water

This work was is being funded by NSF EAGER grant. 

    February 2017

• Prof. Nash is named chair-elect of the APS sponsored Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics. 

January 2017

• Sumyera Tek, 5th year doctoral student, attends SPIE BiOS meeting to present her AFOSR funded work on upconverting nanoparticles for photobiomodulation applications.

October 2016

• Christopher Baker, Mathematics major, wins first place in the Undergraduate Physics division at the 2016 UTSA College of Sciences Research Conference for his work titled "Microwave Synthesis of Highly Luminescence Upconverting Orange Emitting Nanoparticles for Photobimodulation Applications."

• FNL Students present research at the 2016 College of Sciences Research Conference.  

September 2016

• Dr. Nash attends the 2016 Promotion and Tenure luncheon sponsored by the university president, Dr. Ricardo Romo (right).  

• UTSA Today Feature: Dr. Nash promoted to rank of Associate Professor with Tenure! Top-tier UTSA faculty earn promotion, tenure.  The UTSA Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs announces the promotion of 50 faculty members. 

• Prof. Abdullah Darwish from Dillard University visits UTSA as a seminar guest speaker and also see the research happening within the FNL group. Dr. Nash and Brandy Vincent are both Dillard University graduates. 

July 2016

• Dr. Nash is honored by the American Physical Society Committee on the Status of Women in Physics as Woman Physicist of the Month.

June 2016

• The Functional Nanomaterials Lab welcomes summer research students:

        Daniel Angel - LSAMP-CIMA Program

        Tristan Zamora- ACS Project SEED Program

May 2016

• Congratulations to Ms. Sumeyra Tek! She successfully presented her dissertation proposal during her qualifying exam on May 27, 2016. Sumeyra is now a doctoral candidate in Physics. 

• It's official! Dr. Franklin graduated on May 14, 2016. 

• From May 9-12, 2016 Dr. Nash (left) and collaborator, Dr. Guisbiers (right), present at the 4th Conference on Advanced Nanoparticle Generation and Excitation by Lasers in Liquids (ANGEL) in Essen, Germany. They presented results of the laser synthesis of selenium nanoparticles which was funded through the San Antonio Area Foundation. 

April 2016

• Dr. Nash receives recognition for her efforts in education through the Jacqueline O. Dansby Award for Educational Leadership given by the South Central Region of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. 

January 2016

• Drs. Nash, Peralta, Mandt and Bayless co-organize the APS Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) at UTSA/SwRI. We had over 150 undergraduates and mentors who participated in the 3-day conference. UTSA was the host for the keynote address speaker, Ms. Ginger Kerrick who is NASA's first non-astronaut Capsule Communicator (CapCom).

We were interviewed for segment highlight Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics on Spectrum local news.

From left to right: Peralta, Nash, Kerrick, Mandt, Bayless

• Alexis Catala placed third in the APS CUWiP at UTSA/SwRI poster contest. 

December 2015

• Alexis Catala successfully completes her Honor Thesis and graduated with a B.Sc. in Physics and Biology. She is now headed off to University of Colorado for a post-bac research opportunity. Congrats!

August 2015

• Jaime gave an oral presentation at the University of Incarnate Word summarizing her results under the ACS project SEED program to the local ACS chpater members. Her work focuses on photobiomodulatory response of cells induced by light emitting nanoparticles. 

• Ed and Guillermo (Dr. Peralta's Lab) present work on the synthesis and anti-microbial properties of selenium nanoparticles by laser assidted synthesis techniques at the first UTSA Materials Day Symposium.

July 2015

• Mr. Jonathan Mendoza presents the results of his summer research on s at the end of summer research symposium for the LSAMP-CIMA Program.

June 2015

• Dr. Nash is featured in "Meet a Roadrunner." Read the feature article here. 

• The Functional Nanomaterials Lab welcomes summer research students:

        Jon Mendoza - LSAMP-CIMA Program

        Jaime Turcios-Vallalta - ACS Project SEED Program

        Francisco Otero - Monterry Tec. 

        Iker Letechipia - Monterry Tec.

May 2015

• It's official! Dr. Yasmin graduated on May 9, 2015. 

• Alexis presented her honor's thesis proposal on the development of nanoparticles for on-demand laser induced drug delivery at the Honors College Research Symposium held on May 1, 2015.

April 2015

• Congratulations to Dr. Zannatul Yasmin! She successfully defended her dissertation titled "Synthesis and Charaterization of Interactive Nanosystems." 

• Zannatul, Alexis and Dr. Nash co-author a book chapter with collaborator Dr. Randolph Glickman on reactive oxidative sensing using nanoparticles in Applications of Nanobiomaterials I-IX to be published in July 2015. 

March 2015

• Dr. Nash  and co-PIs Dr. Xomalin Peralta and Dr. Gregory Guisbiers have been awarded funding from the San Antonio Area Foundation to study the anti-cancer effects of nanoparticles fabricated from bioessential elements of selenium and related compounds. 

February 2015

• Dr. Nash is a recipient of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Program Award. See the press release here.  

November 2014

• Our collaborative work with Dr. Gregory Guisbiers on the production of pure selenium quantum dots using pulsed lasers and their anti-microbial effects is featured on nanotechweb.org. Read the article here. 

October 2014

• Congratuations to Zannatul (1st author) and Edward (contributing author) on the acceptance of their work on All optical photoacoustic sensing of reactive oxidative species using gold nanoparticles. The work is published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics. 

August 2014

• Mr. Edward Khachatryan  is officially a doctoral candidate. He successfully presented his research proposal on All Optical Optoacoustic Microscopy and its Implementation in Biomedical Diagnostics and Imaging.

• Ms. Samantha Franklin is officially a doctoral candidate. She successfully presented her research proposal on The Role of Nanoparticles and Biological Interfaces for Cellular Imaging, Diagnostics and Therapy. 

• Mr. David Cadena presents the results of his summer research on Light Harvesting from Upconverting Nanocrystals to Photoliable Polymers at the end of summer research symposium.

July 2014

• Ms. Sumeyra Tek is profiled in the Meet a Roadrunner on her work with helping local refugee families adapt to new home.

June 2014

• Mr. David Cadena joins our lab for the summer through the Alamo Colleges LSAMP-CIMA Summer Research at UTSA. David is a student at St. Philips College in San Antonio, TX. Welcome!

• Miss Cheyenne Silva, our ACS Project SEED student returns for another summer. She is now a 2014 graduate of John Marshal High School in San Antonio. Cheyenne will be enrolling in UTSA in the Fall of 2014 with a double major in Biochemistry and Mathematics. She has several scholarships including one from the American Chemical Society earned through her outstanding commitment to research under Project SEED. Congrats!

June 2014

• Mr. David Cadena joins our lab for the summer through the Alamo Colleges LSAMP-CIMA Summer Research at UTSA. David is a student at St. Philip's College in San Antonio, TX. He joins us for the summer through the LS-AMP CIMA Research Program.  

May 2014

• Mr. Chris Salinas (NVC Intern) is accepted to Rice University's NanoJapan Program. 

• Ms. Alexis Catala has been accepted to the University of Washington's Pharmacological Science Summer Diversity Program.    

February 2014

• Mr. Edward Khachatryan gives talk at SPIE BiOS on his work with collaborators Drs. Randolph Glickman, Saher Maswadi, and TomoWave Labs. The title of his talk is "Optoacoustic microscopy using laser beam deflection technique." 

• Ms. Samantha Franklin gives a talk at SPIE on the "Internalization of bio-compatible chitosan gold nanoparticles in NG108 neuronal cells" where she has shown the an accelerated uptake of gold nanoparticles with the assistance of chitosan coatings.  

• The 2nd Annual San Antonio Nano-Technology Forum (SANTF) Conference was held on the UTSA campus. Dr. Nash was a member of the organizing Commitee and also chaired a panel discussion on how and where to get assistance in develop a business from your developed technology. Yasmin and Edward participated in the student research competition.

January 2014

• Mr. Chris Salinas joins the lab through the Northwest Vista Nanotechnology program's internship course. 

November 2013

• Ms. Zannatul Yasmin is offically a doctoral candidate. She successfully presented her proposed dissertation work titled "Synthesis and Optical Characterization of Interactive Nanosystems."  

• Mr. Edward Khachatryan joins our group. His work focuses on intergrating an all-optical photoacoustic sensor into an existing light microscope to co-register both optical and optoacoustic images. 

October 2013

• Dr. Nash recognized by the Society of Physics Students National for her commitment to mentoring students as SPS Advisor. Read announcement here.   

August 2013

• On August 15, 2013, Cheyenne gave an oral presentation at Southwest Research Institute summarizing her results under the ACS project SEED program to the local ACS chpater members. Cheynne's work focuses on synthesizing metallic nanoparticles using different types of human hair as a nanoreactor. She her giving her presentation below. 

• Mr. Nathan Ray leaves our lab and joins the Materials Engineering Ph.D. program at the University of Illinios at Chicago. We all wish him well in his future endeavors. 

July 2013

• Ms. Sumerya Tek joins the lab her work will focus on light harvesting to photoliable polymeric systems.

June 2013

• Miss Cheyenne Silva, a rising high school senior, joins the lab as an ACS Project SEED participant. Her work will focus on the formation of metal nanoparticles using keratin.  

April 2013

• Ms. Zannaul Yasmin will give invited presentation at Northwest Vista College Nanotechnology Seminar on April 17, 2013.

March 2013

• The UTSA Chapter of the Society of Physics Students, under the advisement of Dr. Nash, received outstanding chapter of the year award for 2011-2012. 

• Dr. Nash participates in Youth Summit at her Alma Mater, Dillard University in New Orleans, LA. 

February 2013

• Ms. Zannatul Yasmin and Ms. Samantha Franklin will give talks at SPIE.

October 2012

• Prof. Nash will be giving an invited talk at the Fall 2012Texas Section American Physical Society Meeting on October 27, 2012 held at Texas Tech University.

September 2012

• The UTSA Society of Physics Students and Dr. Nash participate in the Forest Hill Public Library Space 4 Everyone Event. See more pictures here.  

August 2012

• Mr. Nathan Ray joins our lab. 

June 2012

• Prof. Nash along with Dr. Benjamin Furman at Southwest Research Institute win Connect Program Award. Read more here.

April 2012

• MRS Spring Meeting: Prof. Nash is a co-organizer for the Rare Earth Materials Symposium at the 2012 MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco.

January 2012

• Mr. Romulus Kocsis joins our lab. Read more about him here.

Decemeber 2011

• Ms. Samantha Franklin joins our lab. She begins her work by studying radio frequency response of cells after uptake with various nanoparticles. Read more about her here.

October 2011

• Lab renovations are complete! The Functional Nanomaterials Laboratory (FNL) is now open. 

August 2010

• Ms. Zanntual Yasmin becomes first student to join our group! Her work will focus on optical properties of dynamic nanosystems with the goal of understanding how to use these system for biomolecular probes.

April 2010

• Dr. Nash featured in UTSA Catalyst Magazine "Ladies First" by Amanda Beck http://www.utsa.edu/catalyst/vol2/story/ladies-first.html 

Januray 2010

• CBST- Meet the Researcher: http://cbst.ucdavis.edu/research/meet-the-researcher/dr-kelly-nash

February 2007

• KENS5 TV Interview: UTSA physics student overcomes obstacles in pursuit of doctorate