HMC Expert: Nancy Lape
Nancy Lape, PhD, professor of engineering, focuses her research on two areas: energy-efficient composite gas separation membranes and chemical transport across human skin.
Nanocomposite Gas Separation Membranes
To efficiently and effectively separate gas mixtures–such as applying a filter system to trap harmful gasses from factory emissions–membranes must exhibit high gas permeability (fast transport) and high selectivity for one gas over the other. Unfortunately, these properties tend to be diametrically opposed. Lape’s lab examines the crossover between permeability enhancement and reduction with changes in particle size and polymer type. Understanding these effects will allow for the design of tunable membranes for gas separations.
Transdermal Drug Delivery Systems
Human skin provides a two-way barrier that prevents potentially harmful chemicals or diseases from entering the body while slowing water as it exits the body. Medicines applied to the skin may thus not work effectively due to the barrier of the outermost layer of skin, the stratum corneum. Molecules on the skin’s surface must pass this layer to reach the bloodstream. Lape’s lab investigates the potential increase in skin permeability by mechanical extension, and the effects of hydration on rate of transport, research that could lead to improved transdermal drug delivery systems.
Media Appearances
- hmc.edu, 4/18/18 Lape Awarded Distinguished Teaching Professorship at Princeton
- Forbes, 11/15/17 New Intro Engineering Course Engages Students in Underwater Robotics
- Business Insider, 9/25/17 Tiny College Outside LA Where Grads Out-earn Harvard and Stanford
- hmc.edu, 8/9/17 Engineering by (Re)Design
- Los Angeles Times, 11/16/14 Harvey Mudd among colleges experimenting with ‘flipped’ classes
- Forbes, 7/10/14 The Science Behind Graduating A Class With Majority Women Engineers
- Slate, 4/25/14 Can Flipped Classrooms Help Students Learn?
- Inside Higher Ed, 10/30/13 Still in Favor of the Flip
- hmc.edu, 9/16/13 Harvey Mudd Professors to Study “Flipped” Classroom Model
- Video: Lape describes a course she co-created on Robotic Vehicles