Nanoscience Connected to Life: An Interdisciplinary Traineeship Program in Bioinspired Nanotechnology

纳米科学与生命相连：仿生纳米技术的跨学科培训计划

• 批准号: 2151945
• 负责人: Rein Ulijn
• 金额: $ 300万
• 依托单位: CUNY Graduate School University Center
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-07-01 至 2027-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2151945&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Nanoscience; Connected; Life; Interdisciplinary; Traineeship

The living world provides many fascinating examples of highly evolved, sophisticated machinery working in synergy to sustain life. A fundamental understanding of nature’s architectures and processes can be applied to create new biology-inspired and green technologies for the benefit of human and environmental health. However, this challenging task requires integrating aspects of research in biology, chemistry, and physics focused down to the smallest functional scale: the nanoscale. This NSF Research Traineeship (NRT), "Nanoscience Connected to Life: an Interdisciplinary Traineeship Program in Bioinspired Nanotechnology," will provide education, research, and career development to help build a new workforce in the emerging field of bioinspired nanotechnology. As this field undergoes rapid expansion and industry embraces these new approaches, society needs a uniquely trained and diverse workforce. Building on the City University of New York’s (CUNY) reputation as an engine for upward mobility of a diverse student population, this traineeship will provide a novel and comprehensive graduate education for 125 graduate students. The program will serve 25 directly funded trainees, including individuals from minority populations underrepresented in their pursuit of STEM fields of study, women, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Graduates will become effective leaders who will be able to solve complex problems facing the U.S. and provide new scientific breakthroughs in energy harvesting, agriculture, medicine, and environmental remediation. The broad educational vision of this project is to train a generation of STEM Ph.D. students as collaborative, systems-level thinkers who can translate concepts across scales and disciplines. The project strengthens and integrates chemistry, biochemistry, and physics Ph.D. programs at CUNY through convergence around common goals. Students will become well-positioned to work on convergent teams to address urgent societal challenges related to environmental instabilities and health crises. At the heart of each student’s experience is a use-inspired project in one of several different areas of research employing biology-inspired approaches. These include: i) harvesting and conversion of energy, ii) designing nanoscale interfaces to measure and influence living systems, iii) newly designed sustainable green materials, and iv) development of adaptive metabolic systems and functional materials for therapeutic and industrial use. These investigations will span theoretical, computational, and experimental approaches. The project will prepare CUNY Ph.D. students for STEM careers in industrial, government, academic, and entrepreneurial tracks by integrating career awareness throughout the training period. The training plan is based on an innovative Integrating Mental Models and Experimental Research in Scientific Education (IMMERSE) training model, designed to create a learning community of systems thinkers. In this model, participants exchange knowledge and communicate across unfamiliar concepts, cultures, and methods. The IMMERSE training model can be replicated at other universities and in other convergent research areas. The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas through comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

生物世界提供了许多令人着迷的例子，高度进化，复杂的机器协同工作以维持生命。对大自然的结构和过程的基本理解可以应用于创造新的生物启发和绿色技术，以造福人类和环境健康。然而，这项具有挑战性的任务需要整合生物学，化学和物理学研究的各个方面，重点关注最小的功能尺度：纳米尺度。这个NSF研究培训（NRT），“纳米科学连接到生命：在生物启发纳米技术的跨学科培训计划，”将提供教育，研究和职业发展，以帮助建立一个新的劳动力在生物启发纳米技术的新兴领域。随着这一领域的迅速扩张和行业接受这些新方法，社会需要一支受过独特训练的多样化劳动力队伍。凭借纽约城市大学（CUNY）作为多元化学生群体向上流动引擎的声誉，此次实习将为125名研究生提供新颖而全面的研究生教育。该计划将为25名直接资助的学员提供服务，其中包括来自少数民族人口的个人，他们在追求STEM研究领域，妇女和LGBTQ+社区成员中的代表性不足。毕业生将成为有效的领导者，他们将能够解决美国面临的复杂问题，并在能源收集，农业，医学和环境修复方面提供新的科学突破。 该项目的广阔教育愿景是培养一代STEM博士学生作为协作，系统级的思想家谁可以跨尺度和学科的概念翻译。该项目加强和整合化学，生物化学和物理博士学位。通过围绕共同目标的融合，在CUNY开展项目。学生将成为有能力在融合团队中工作，以解决与环境不稳定和健康危机相关的紧迫社会挑战。在每个学生的经验的核心是一个使用启发的项目在几个不同的研究领域之一，采用生物启发的方法。其中包括：i）能量的收集和转换，ii）设计纳米级界面以测量和影响生命系统，iii）新设计的可持续绿色材料，以及iv）开发用于治疗和工业用途的适应性代谢系统和功能材料。这些调查将跨越理论，计算和实验方法。该项目将准备纽约市立大学博士。通过在整个培训期间整合职业意识，帮助学生在工业，政府，学术和创业轨道上从事STEM职业。该培训计划基于创新的整合心智模型和科学教育实验研究（IMMERSE）培训模式，旨在创建一个系统思考者的学习社区。在这种模式中，参与者交流知识，并在不熟悉的概念，文化和方法中进行沟通。IMMERSE培训模式可以在其他大学和其他趋同研究领域推广。 NSF研究培训（NRT）计划旨在鼓励为STEM研究生教育培训开发和实施大胆的，新的潜在变革模式。该计划致力于通过创新的、基于证据的、与不断变化的劳动力和研究需求相一致的综合培训模式，在高优先级的跨学科或融合研究领域对STEM研究生进行有效培训。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。