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Christopher Sims (Fed)
Research Chemist
Dr. Christopher M. Sims is a Research Chemist and member of the Particles, Tubes, and Colloids Project Team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The team aims to develop measurement methods and technologies to enable and improve commerce of dispersed objects such as nanoparticles, colloids, and biomolecules.
A current research focus is the development of methods enabling more efficient separations and isolations of single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), allowing for improved characterization of SWCNT properties and in turn, facilitation of SWCNT technology development. Christopher is also advancing the metrology of several particle suspension and colloidal systems through analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC), a technique that optically monitors the sedimentation of the analyte of interest during centrifugation. Through careful control of experimental design and subsequent data analysis, AUC can obtain a wealth of quantitative information on the analyte of interest, such as its effective density, size distribution, and interactions with other species within the system, all in its native environment.
Christopher obtained a B.S. in Chemistry with high honors from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), where he was a Meyerhoff Scholar, and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD), where he was a Dolphus E. Milligan Graduate Fellow. With a background in nanomaterial synthesis and characterization, Christopher joined NIST as a National Research Council Postdoctoral Research Associate, where his research focused on the development of new methods for measuring the physicochemical properties of engineered nanomaterials and understanding how these physicochemical properties influence nanomaterial interactions with biological and environmental systems.
Awards
2016 International Nanotoxicology Congress Travel Award
2015 National Research Council Postdoctoral Research Associateship
2013-2014 Ann G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship
2011-2013 Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) Fellowship
2008-2010 Dolphus E. Milligan Graduate Fellowship
2008 Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Society
2008 The Phi Beta Kappa Society
2004-2008 UMBC Meyerhoff Scholarship