International Network: Education and Research on Energy and Nanoscience

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This international network for education and research in energy and nanoscience links researchers and students from seven universities and two laboratories in the United States with European partners at two French institutions, one German and six in the Czech Republic. As organizer and principal investigator, Josef Michl at University of Colorado-Boulder will work with network-member senior and junior faculty to advance the interdisciplinary fields related to renewable energy and nano-chemistry. Their goal is to grow professional ties among an up-coming generation of researchers while producing fundamental results that contribute to future applications in important areas such as solar energy conversion, batteries and fuel cell development, optoelectronics, and fluidics, where efficient new materials are in demand. Central to the effort are multiple interactions through annual institute-type workshops and a program of mobility for recent U.S. Ph. D.s and graduate students who will go to participating laboratories for defined, extended research visits. Participating U.S institutions include North Carolina State University, University of California-Los Angeles, Northwestern University, Vanderbilt University, University of Nevada, University of Colorado-Boulder, University of Utah, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. In Europe, the lead partner institutions are Ecole Normale Superieure Lyon, Universitat Erlangen, and the Czech Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry. Participating scientists envision a rich exchange of ideas that will: 1) stimulate new and heightened interaction between theorists and experimentalists and 2) promote refinement of specialized research techniques as well as sample sharing among expert synthesis groups and counterparts who excel in measurement and characterization of new materials. This interdisciplinary mobility network for education and research in energy and nanoscience fulfills the program objective of advancing scientific knowledge by enabling experts in the United States and Europe to combine complementary talents and share research resources in areas of strong mutual interest and competence. Broader impacts include the early career introduction of U.S. graduate students and junior faculty to principal scientists at nine leading U.S. research institutions and nine in the European research community. Their experience should prepare them well for teamwork in a global age and the pursuit of new functional materials.