IGERT: Materials Creation Training Program (MCTP)

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The Materials Creation Training Program (MCTP) at UCLA will train scientists to be leaders in the design, synthesis, and production of new materials for electronic, computer, communication, and nanoscale devices. The training and mentoring faculty come from departments in Physical Sciences (Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry and Biochemistry) and Engineering (Mechanical and Aerospace, Chemical, and Electrical Engineering, and Materials Science). All are associates of the UCLA Exotic Materials Institute (EMI), which will administer the MCTP. Many are also members of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) - a state-supported venture that was created in 2001 to provide facilities and resources for materials and medical nanoscience. This resource will be available for training and research of MCTP Fellows. The MCTP unites a broad range of molecular and materials architects, synthetic chemists, and device fabricators, at UCLA and at partner industrial and national laboratories. MCTP Fellows are supported for two years of their graduate careers, during which they will work in teams with UCLA and off-campus scientist partners using state-of-the-art instrumentation and computational resources. Novel training aspects will include a new graduate course involving all aspects of materials and molecular design, synthesis, testing, and modification of materials, device fabrication and testing, and demonstration and marketing aspects of practical devices. This course will deal with science issues beyond the laboratory and will develop researchers versed in the importance of understanding materials properties across length scales, from molecular to macroscopic. Each MCTP Fellow will spend several months or more at an industrial or national laboratory partner site. Research projects will include the design and synthesis of new molecules, the transformation of these into molecular solids and polymers, the formation of new inorganic and organic/information composites, and the development of devices based on these new materials. Fellows will be selected for excellence and diversity. The new graduate program will be evaluated on a yearly basis by a board including university, industrial, and government representatives. Community outreach activities will emphasize the importance and potential of scientific research and attractiveness of graduate education in science. The Materials (MCTP), Bioinformatics, and Neuroengineering IGERTs at UCLA constitute a new graduate educational paradigm, emphasizing multidisciplinary research encompassing life and physical sciences, as well as computer science and engineering. 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 fourth year of the program, awards are being made to twenty-two 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 Mathematical and Physical Sciences; Engineering; and Education and Human Resources.