IGERT: Multiscale Phenomena in Soft Materials

该提案描述了一个机构间的软材料IGERT项目，该项目将在城市大学和哥伦比亚大学联合提供，这两所大学离得很近。De Gennes将软材料定义为通过弱结合相互作用在超分子长度尺度上组织的有机介质。例如用于传感器的聚合物薄膜，用于电子显示器的有机混合物，以及从复杂流体到软固体的天然和人造组织。它们本质上是多尺度的，从分子到宏观的。可以出现各种令人惊叹的结构和形态，从而实现广泛的新技术，以及所有规模的影响加工和使用。博士项目将围绕联合研讨会、工业实习、合作论文研究和核心联合课程（包括两门新的实验课程）展开。研究将在三个互补的领域：限制对聚合物静力学和动力学的影响，化学和物理模式，以及生物相关材料的多尺度现象。建议的核心课程将在学生主修系的核心学科要求之外进行。我们的提案与所有五个参与部门的现有博士学位要求一致，并且不会以任何方式增加学位要求或教师教学负荷；软材料课程将满足现有的选修课要求，但将使学生专注于这些选修课在一个协调的程序。拟议的合作项目在两个方面是独特的：首先，它利用了两个相邻的城市，公共/私人机构的智力和物质资源，具有互补的教师和多样化的学生群体。其次，它为研究和研究生教育创造了一个独特的、协同的环境，这是一个利基领域的核心，对大纽约地区的工业至关重要。IGERT是一项nsf范围内的计划，旨在满足培养具有多学科背景和技术，专业和个人技能的美国博士科学家和工程师的挑战，以满足未来职业需求。该计划旨在通过建立创新的研究生教育和培训模式，在一个超越传统学科界限的合作研究的肥沃环境中，促进研究生教育的文化变革。在该计划的第五年，奖项将颁发给21个机构，这些机构的项目共同跨越了NSF支持的科学和工程领域。

This proposal describes an inter-institutional IGERT program in soft materials to be offered jointly at City College of CUNY and Columbia University, which are in close proximity. De Gennes defines soft materials as organic media that organize on supramolecular length scales via weak associative interactions. Examples include thin polymeric films for sensors, organic blends for electronic displays, and natural and artificial tissue, spanning the range from complex fluids to soft solids. They are intrinsically multi-scale, molecular to macroscopic. A stunning variety of structures and morphologies can emerge, enabling a wide range of new technologies, and all scales impact processing and use. The Ph.D. program will be built around joint seminars, an industrial internship, collaborative thesis research, and a core of joint course offerings, including two new laboratory courses. The research will be in three complementary areas: effects of confinement on polymer statics and dynamics, chemical and physical patterning, and multi-scale phenomena in bio-related materials. The proposed core curriculum will be taken in addition to the core disciplinary requirements in the student's major department. Our proposal is consistent with existing Ph.D. requirements for all five participating departments, and does not add in any way to the degree requirements or faculty teaching loads; the soft materials courses will satisfy existing elective requirements, but will enable the students to focus these electives within a coordinated program. The proposed collaborative program is unique in two respects: First, it leverages the intellectual and material resources of two neighboring, urban, public/private institutions with complementary faculty and diverse student bodies. Second, it creates a unique, synergistic environment for research and graduate education in a niche area that is at the heart of numerous technologies essential to industries based in the greater New York regional area.IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. 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 innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. In the fifth year of the program, awards are being made to twenty-one institutions for programs that collectively span the areas of science and engineering supported by NSF.