Rachel D. Near PhD

Senior Patent Agent

678-869-7748

Biography

Rachel’s practice focuses on domestic and international patent drafting and prosecution, patentability and freedom to operate analysis, inventorship analysis, and portfolio management. Rachel has worked with large multi-national companies, universities, and individual inventors to protect valuable intellectual property on a diverse range of technologies including chemistry, materials, nanotechnology, agricultural products, energy storage and conversion devices, batteries, electrochemical devices, catalysts, paints and coatings, spectroscopy, and drug delivery.

Rachel was awarded a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her doctoral research focused on the optical properties of plasmonic nanoparticles, optimizing their design for applications in spectroscopy, solar energy, catalysis, cancer therapy and biodiagnostics.

Education

Georgia Institute of Technology, B.S., Chemistry, with highest honors

Georgia Institute of Technology, B.S., Physics, with highest honors

Georgia Institute of Technology, PhD, Physical Chemistry

Admissions

  • U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

  • Experience

    • Researcher, Georgia Institute of Technology
    • Teaching Assistant, Georgia Institute of Technology

  • Practice Areas

  • Technologies

  • Publications & Presentations

    • Near R, Hayden SC, Hunter RE, Thackston D, El-Sayed MA. Rapid and Efficient Prediction of Optical Extinction Coefficients for Gold Nanospheres and Gold Nanorods. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2013, 117, 23950-23955.

    • Near R, Hayden SC, El-Sayed MA. Thin to Thick, Short to Long: Spectral Properties of Gold Nanorods by Theoretical Modeling. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2013, 117, 18653-18656.

    • Near R, El-Sayed MA. Hollow Gold Nanorectangles: The Roles of Polarization, Shape and Substrate. J ChemPhys, 2013,139, 044713.

    • Near R, Hayden S, El-Sayed MA. Extinction vs Absorption: Which Is the Indicator of Plasmonic Field Strength for Silver Nanocubes? Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2012, 116, 23019.

    • Near R, Tabor C, Duan J, Pachter R, El-Sayed MA. Pronounced Effects of Anisotropy on Plasmonic Properties of Nanorings Fabricated by Electron Beam Lithography. Nano Letters, 2012, 12, 2158.

    • Mackey M, Ali M, Austin L, Near R, El-Sayed M. The Most Effective Gold Nanorod Size for Plasmonic Photothermal Therapy: Theory and In Vitro Experiments. Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2014, 118, 1319-1326.

    • Gupta MK, Konig T, Near R, Nepal D, Drummy LF, Biswas S, Naik S, Vaia RA, El-SayedMA,Tsukruk VV. Surface Assembly and Plasmonic Properties in Strongly Coupled Segmented Gold Nanorods. Small, 2013, 9, 2979-2990.

    • Hayden S, Austin L, Near R, Ozturk R, El-Sayed MA. Plasmonic Enhancement of PhotodynamicCancer Therapy. Journal of Photochemistry and PhotoBiology A: Chemistry, 2013, 269, 34-41.

    • “Hollow Gold Nanorectangles: The Role of Polarization, Substrate, and Orientation” Poster, Southeastern Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Atlanta, GA, November, 2013.

    • “Effects of Anisotropy on Plasmonic Properties of Nanorings Fabricated via EBL” Poster, 57th International EIPBN Conference, Nashville, TN, May, 2013.

    • “Coupling Phenomena and Plasmonics in Organic/Inorganic Nanostructures” Talk, Annual BIONICS Meeting, Atlanta, GA

    • “Coupling Phenomena in Arrays of Plasmonic Nanostructures” Invited talk, AFRL, Dayton, OH, July, 2011.

  • Honors & Awards

    • Georgia Institute of Technology Presidential Fellowship
    • President’s Undergraduate Research Award
    • William M. Spicer Scholarship
    • Outstanding Undergraduate in Chemistry Award
    • Dreyfus Fellowship/Scholarship