IGERT Program in Nanotechnology

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9987620Viola Vogel - University of WashingtonIGERT: NanotechnologyThis Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award supports the establishment of a multidisciplinary graduate training program of education and researchin nanotechnology. This field draws from revolutionizing advances in science and enabling technology to build extremely small structures and devices. Nano-scale structures are several billionth of a meter long, about a thousand times smaller than the human hair. Expertise to build these structures is growing rapidly, and capitalizes from fundamental advances in physics, electronics, chemistry, material sciences, biology, biotechnology and medicine. This interdisciplinary approach to nanotechnology requires close cooperation among fields of science and technology that are traditionally separated. The new graduate education program in Nanotechnology at the University of Washington will thus educate a new generation of scientists and engineers who will cross those disciplinary boundaries. Graduate students will enroll in one of the seven participating departments and become involved with the Center for Nanotechnology through additional course work, research experiences, hands-on training on modern nano-analytical tools, seminars, symposia, and social interactions. Additional options include an industrial internship program, and various certificate programs. The student will graduate with a Ph.D from a home department and Nanotechnology, for example in Physics and Nanotechnology.IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the multidisciplinary backgrounds and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing new, innovative models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. In the third year of the program, awards are being made to nineteen institutions for programs that collectively span all areas of science and engineering supported by NSF. The intellectual foci of this specific award reside in the Directorates for Engineering, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and Education and Human Resources.