REU Site: Nanoscale Materials Science and Engineering at Vanderbilt University

该范德比尔特纳米科学与工程研究所（VINSE）夏季REU计划将提供科学和工程本科生的机会，在纳米科学和工程领域的研究项目与教师密切合作。VINSE教师将为REU学生提供跨学科的研究经验，在这个环境中，物理学家，化学家，生物学家和工程师合作解决问题并创造新的科学理解。 该研究的首要主题是纳米材料创新和制造，用于从药物输送材料到高效太阳能转换的广泛应用。在纳米材料中，关键的结构特征是大约人类头发宽度的千分之一。纳米科学和纳米技术是基于在纳米尺度上系统地合成、组织、表征和操纵物质的能力，创造独特的功能材料，这些材料可以是无机的、有机的或生物的，或者其中任何两种或多种的混合物。 因此，纳米科学和纳米技术提出了跨越传统上不同学科的巨大挑战。 显然，为了满足这些需求，在纳米技术的广泛领域的未来科学家和工程师的培训是至关重要的。 纳米科学和工程的跨学科性质意味着它本质上涉及所有科学和工程，从而需要以跨学科的方式培养各级学生。 这应该包括对本科专业课程坚实基础为跨学科研究做准备的方式的赞赏，并获得他们的研究需要“超越板凳”的现实世界的视角。这个REU将通过结合范德比尔特独特的跨学科研究机会，在纳米尺度上，在基于学科的实验室或计算环境中参与研究，提供正是这个机会。 因此，通过这个跨学科的暑期课程培训的学生将离开与成功地促进纳米科学和纳米技术的新兴学科所需的技能的赞赏。REU的学生也将有机会通过参加范德比尔特夏季学院的天才高中生谁表示了对纳米科学和纳米技术的兴趣，在研究与教育和推广的整合培训。这个REU网站是由材料科学（DMR）和工程教育和中心（ENG/EEC）的NSF部门共同资助。

The Vanderbilt Institute for Nanoscale Science and Engineering (VINSE) summer REU program will offer science and engineering undergraduate students the opportunity to work closely with faculty on research projects in the field of nanoscale science and engineering. VINSE faculty will provide REU students with an interdisciplinary research experience in an environment where physicists, chemists, biologists, and engineers collaboratively solve problems and create new scientific understanding. The overarching theme of the research is nano-materials innovation and fabrication for a wide range of applications from materials for drug delivery to efficient solar energy conversion. In nano-materials, the key structural features are about 1 thousandth of the width of a human hair.Nanoscience and nanotechnology are based on the ability to synthesize, organize, characterize, and manipulate matter systematically at the nanoscale, creating uniquely functional materials which can be inorganic, organic or biological, or a hybrid of any two or more of these. Consequently, nanoscience and nanotechnology pose formidable challenges that cut across traditionally distinct disciplines. Clearly, to meet these demands, the training of future scientists and engineers in the broad field of nanotechnology is of paramount importance. The interdisciplinary nature of nanoscale science and engineering means it inherently involves all of the sciences and engineering, resulting in the need to train students at all levels in an interdisciplinary manner. This should include an appreciation for the way a solid grounding in the undergraduate major program prepares for interdisciplinary research, and gaining a real-world perspective of the need for their research to progress "beyond the bench". This REU will provide precisely this opportunity by combining Vanderbilt's unique interdisciplinary research opportunities at the nanoscale, with participation in research in a discipline-based experimental laboratory or computational setting. Consequently, students trained through this interdisciplinary summer program will leave with an appreciation of the skills needed to successfully contribute to the emerging disciplines of nanoscience and nanotechnology. The REU students will also be offered the opportunity for training in the integration of research with education and outreach through participation in the Vanderbilt Summer Academy for gifted high school students who have expressed an interest in nanoscience and nanotechnology.This REU site is co-funded by the NSF Divisions of Materials Science (DMR) and Engineering Education and Centers (ENG/EEC).