NEWARK —In his line of work, Haim Grebel deals with only the very small.
Tiny is even an overstatement because as a professor of electrical and computer engineering, he studies the properties of artificial structures on the micron and nano-scales — far less than a human hair.
Inside the third floor laboratory of the Microelectronic Building on the New Jersey Institute of Technology campus in downtown Newark, Grebel works with students and colleagues to explore and find applications for nanotechnology.
They focus specifically on a super-thin and super-strong material called graphene, and how it could have a vast range of applications in public health, communications, biomaterials and other fields.
A Livingston resident, Grebel, 59, was honored Thursday with the 2011 NJIT Excellence in Research Prize and Medal for his research work in nanotechnology.
A professor at NJIT since 1987, Grebel spearheaded the nanotechnology research focus and still shapes the school’s work in the booming field, said Donald Sebastian, senior vice president of research and development at NJIT and a member of the committee that selected Grebel for the award.
A nanometer — the scale that Grebel deals with — is one-hundred-thousandth the width of a human hair. At that level, materials like graphene display unique properties not found in other naturally occurring elements, said John Federici, a physics professor and longtime colleague.
"He (Grebel) was one of the first people here who recognized the importance of the field," Federici said.
Grebel did not discover graphene, an atom-thick layer of graphite that is 97 percent translucent. But he has developed innovative techniques that physicians could use to identify different strains of viruses quickly and relatively cheaply.
Just a few materials are needed: a swab of saliva from an ill patient placed on a slide with graphene, which is porous and has unique conductivity properties, and a few other biomaterials.
Doctors could then identify whether a virus attaches to certain molecule receptors, indicating whether an influenza virus, for instance, is swine flu or avian flu.
Born in Israel in a town just outside of Tel Aviv, Grebel grew up in an academic and artistically minded home.
His mother was a history teacher who studied linguistics and philosophy. His father drew maps professionally but also pursued a serious side career as an artist, painting and carving.
For his 13th birthday, Grebel received a copy of Albert Einstein’s book "Relativity: The Special and General Theory." That sparked his interest and led to his career as a physicist, Grebel said. "I read it and I fell in love."
But in his youth he also dabbled in other interests. In high school, Grebel and a band of five schoolmates created short films.
One member became a professional actress, noted Grebel, who kept himself behind the camera as a director.
In some ways, Grebel sees himself as a movie director at NJIT: his students are the actors and the technical scrawlings on the whiteboard are scripts.
And like an artist, Grebel also relies on his sixth sense even inside the lab.
"There’s many people who can sit down and think about a problem and solve a math problem," Federici said. "(Grebel) seems to have an intuitive feel for what should work, what should not work, what are feasible explanations."
Grebel’s work has produced four patent awards, more than 90 scholarly papers and over a dozen invitations to present his research. He’s received research funding from the Department of Defense, National Science Foundation and NASA. Next month, he’ll head to Seattle to give a talk on detecting human and avian flu viruses with his techniques using graphene.
Federici compared Grebel to skilled chefs who know their way around a kitchen.
"They instinctively know how to put things together to get the most out of the flavors," he said.
Grebel shies away from calling his research work his passion. He spends full days then nights until 10 p.m. working with students in the lab. But it’s just one part of his life — one cultivated over many years.
"It requires hard work and love and dedication," Grebel said.
The world of science and research, he added, is not just for the chosen few. "The world is not just cold math. Physics is more warm and fuzzy — you can develop feelings for it," he said grinning.