B.L. Ramakrishna
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My research interests are in two areas -1) Biomineralization, and 2) Science Education.
The problems in Biomineralization that we are interested in lie at the crossroads of Biology and Materials Science & Engineering. We investigate biological supramolecular assemblies such as proteins, membranes, and DNA that are capable of incorporating inorganic solids and precisely control their size, shape, and orientation at the nanometer scale. The work will lead to understanding the design principles behind the synthesis of biominerals by a variety of living systems such as plants, fungi and microbes. These are not only fascinating from the fundamental point of view but also have many potential applications. Specifically, in the area of environmental nanobiotechnology, the interest is to investigate the sequestration of heavy metals such as cadmium, copper and lead by plants and microbes with the final goal being the potential applications in bioremediation, prospecting and mining in Arizona as well as for nanosensors.
I am committed to bring about innovations in science education by infusion of cutting-edge research through student-scientist partnerships, visualization based technologies, and leading-edge telecommunications. I am exploring mechanisms and methodologies to forge sustainable partnerships between graduate education and K-12 science classrooms and studying their impact on reforming graduate education. I am investigating the knowledge and attitudes of teachers, at the secondary school and college levels, about the challenges and opportunities that nanotechnology presents in revitalizing math and science education in both the formal and informal arena. I am also interested to explore issues concerning public understanding of nanotechnology and the role of various media in shaping the views of the public.
Selected Publications
Bhavin Ajmera, Elena Ortiz-Barney, Juliet Stromberg, Shyamal Pandya, and B Ramakrishna (2003) The Floristic Relay: A computer game to learn about concepts in Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications, Issue 1, pp. 706-707
Prashanth Viswanath, Prasad Viswanath, Ed Ong, Vincent Pizziconi, B Ramakrishna (2003) Interactive Applets for Nanotechnolgy, Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications, Issue. 1, pp. 940-94
Anshuman Razdan, Ashish Amresh, Naresh Kumar Bade, Shyamal H. Pandya, Junyi Sun, Eddie W. Ong, B. L. Ramakrishna, Vincent B. Pizziconi, and William S. Glaunsinger, (2000) "Remote Operation of Scanning Probe Microscopes Over the Internet", Proceedings of Royal Microscopy Society 35, 297-305
E.W. Ong, A. Razdan, A.A. Garcia, V.B. Pizziconi, B.L. Ramakrishna and W.S. Glaunsinger, (2000) "Interactive nano-Visualization of Materials over the Internet" J. Chem Educ. 77, 1114-1116
Ramakrishna, BL, EW Ong, and V Pizziconi. (2000). Interactive Nano-Visualization for Science and Engineering Education. Journal of Materials Education, vol. 21 no. (1/2).
Ramakrishna, BL, J Trost, and RE Blankenship. (1998). EPR investigation of AURACYANIN - a Blue Copper protein. Biochemistry 27:7858-7863.
Ramamkrishna, BL, P Ramakrishna, E Ong, and T Garcia. (1998). Multiple Uses of the Internet in the Undergraduate Biology Classroom. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) -- Proceedings of Web-Net 98 World Conference of the WWW, Internet and Intranet.
Glaunsinger, WS, BL Ramakrishna, VB Pizziconi, and AA Garcia. (1997). Multidisciplinary Scanning Probe Microscopy laboratory. J Chemical Education vol 74:1.
Zhu, Y, S Lin, BL Ramakrishna, PI van Noort, and RB Blankenship. (1996). Self quenching of chlorosome chlorophylls in water and hexanol-saturated water. Photosynthesis Research 31:1-12.
Zhu, Y. BL Ramakrishna, PI van Noort, and RB Blankenship. (1995). Microscopic and spectroscopic studies of untreated and hexanol-treated Chlorosomes from Chloroflexus Aurantiacus. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1232:197-207.