Prof. Justus C. Ndukaife
Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt Univ
SPIE Involvement:
Conference Program Committee | Author | Special Event Speaker
Area of Expertise:
Plasmonics , Nanophotonics , Optical Trapping , Biosensing
Websites:
Profile Summary

Prof. Justus Ndukaife is an accomplished researcher and innovator in the field of Optics and Nanophotonics. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, following his MSc degree from Purdue Northwest and a BSc degree with First Class Honors from the University of Lagos, Nigeria.
Dr. Ndukaife's research revolves around optical nanotweezers enabled by cutting-edge nanophotonics technologies, including plasmonics and resonant dielectric metasurfaces. His work has focused on single extracellular vesicle analysis and enhancing on-chip quantum light sources. His exceptional work on optical nanotweezers has been published in top peer-reviewed journals, including Nature Nanotechnology, Science, Nature Communications, ACS Nano, ACS Photonics, Nanoscale, and Nano Letters. Dr. Ndukaife is also an inventor of seven US patents on optical nanotweezers, underscoring his commitment to practical applications of his research.

The impact of Dr. Ndukaife's work has been widely recognized, earning him several prestigious awards and honors. Notably, he received a global Rising Stars of Light award in 2020, and his iCANX talk on Optical Nanotweezers research captured the attention of over 260,000 viewers worldwide. Among his numerous accolades are the NIH MIRA R35 Outstanding Investigator Award, NSF CAREER award, Vanderbilt Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research, the Year 2017 Prize in Physics from the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation, the Purdue College of Engineering Outstanding Research Award, NSBE Golden Torch Award, Best Paper Award at the ASME conference, a Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Award, and elevation to a Senior Member position at IEEE and Optica.
Publications (16)

Proceedings Article | 3 October 2024 Presentation
Guodong Zhu, Yanrong Zhang, Sen Yang, Chuchuan Hong, Sharon Weiss, Justus Ndukaife
Proceedings Volume PC13112, PC1311215 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3029965
KEYWORDS: Photonic crystals, Microfluidics, Particles, Optical tweezers, Resonance enhancement, Plasmonics, Optofluidics, Dielectrics, Waveguides, Transportation

Proceedings Article | 3 October 2024 Presentation
Proceedings Volume PC13112, PC131121D (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3029886
KEYWORDS: Passivation, Surface chemistry, Optical surfaces, Self-assembled monolayers, Polymers, Materials properties, Adsorption, Vibration, Surface properties, Spectroscopes

Proceedings Article | 3 October 2024 Presentation
Proceedings Volume PC13112, PC1311209 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3029801
KEYWORDS: Particles, Nanoantennas, Optical tweezers, Electromagnetism, Diffraction limit, Antennas, Photothermal effect, Nanotechnology, Nanoparticles, Molecules

Proceedings Article | 3 October 2024 Presentation
Proceedings Volume PC13112, PC1311207 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3029278
KEYWORDS: Biomedical optics, Particles, Environmental science, Therapeutics, Sustainability, Proteins, Plasmonics, Planets, Physics, Optical tweezers

Proceedings Article | 3 October 2024 Poster
Proceedings Volume PC13112, PC131121J (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3029884
KEYWORDS: Plasmonics, Near field optics, Near field, Nanoparticles, Laser resonators, Spectroscopy, Resonators, Molecules, Light-matter interactions, Electromagnetism

Showing 5 of 16 publications
Conference Committee Involvement (7)
Active Photonic Platforms (APP) 2025
3 August 2025 | San Diego, California, United States
Optical Trapping and Optical Micromanipulation XXII
3 August 2025 | San Diego, California, United States
Optical Trapping and Optical Micromanipulation XXI
18 August 2024 | San Diego, California, United States
Optical Trapping and Optical Micromanipulation XX
20 August 2023 | San Diego, California, United States
Optical Trapping and Optical Micromanipulation XIX
21 August 2022 | San Diego, California, United States
Showing 5 of 7 Conference Committees
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