IGERT Formal Proposal: Nanophases in the Environment, Agriculture, and Technology

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This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award supports establishment of a multidisciplinary graduate training program in education and research at the interface of materials science and environmental science. Nanophases, small particles with very high surface areas, occur ubiquitously and interact strongly with living matter. The underlying characterization and fundamental science of nanomaterials is similar wherever such particles occur. The NEAT program will educate students in four interrelated areas: the fundamental science and technology of nanophases, the transport and transformation of nanophases in the environment, the interaction of nanophases with the biosphere, and the policy issues raised by nanoparticles in the environment. Students will come from backgrounds as diverse as solid state physics, geology, and microbiology. A set of courses, lab rotations, internships, and research opportunities will educate these students broadly in more than one discipline. With the California State College system, the community colleges, and other educational institutions, we will recruit students from a wide range of cultural and economic backgrounds. The demographics of the State of California, and of the Central Valley agricultural area in particular, provides a rich pool of potential applicants from underrepresented groups. We will build strong interactions with Livermore and Sandia National Laboratories, the U. S. Geological Survey, and industrial partners.IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to facilitate the establishment of innovative, research-based graduate programs that will train a diverse group of scientists and engineers to be well-prepared to take advantage of a broad spectrum of career options. IGERT provides doctoral institutions with an opportunity to develop new, well-focussed multidisciplinary graduate programs that transcend organizational boundaries and unite faculty from several departments or institutions to establish a highly interactive, collaborative environment for both training and research. In this second year of the program, awards are being made to twenty-one institutions for programs that collectively span all areas of science and engineering supported by NSF. This specific award is supported by funds from the Directorates for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (Office of Multidisciplinary Activities), Sciences, for Biological Sciences, for Engineering, and for Education and Human Resources.