Joaquin Alberto Ascencio Rodriguez, Ph.D.

My professional interests lie in developing optical tools to study biological and physical systems at the micro- and nanoscale. I have experience using optical tweezers to manipulate microscopic objects and measure forces in the piconewton range. Currently, I am exploring the applications of the Nanofluidic Scattering Microscope (NSM), developed by my team at the Dioscuri Center for Single-Molecule Optics. My research integrates numerical modeling—such as finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations—with experimental studies to design and characterize nanofluidic platforms for label-free sensing and monitoring of metal nanoparticles.