IGERT: Engineering Photons for a Sustainable Future

这个综合研究生教育和研究培训（IGERT）奖促进了博士的独特的跨学科培训。可持续和可再生能源解决方案领域的科学家和工程师。能源经济是当前和未来几代科学家和工程师必须应对的一个紧迫而重大的挑战。智力优势：该计划通过专注于直接相关的两个子系统的技术创新来应对这一挑战：下一代太阳能光电子学和下一代高效光学数据和通信网络。这两个子系统都涉及光子的操纵，通过实现物理纳米结构器件和新的光谱特征功能材料，以提供比当前水平更好的能源效率。交叉培训的科学研究与创新的教育方法协同整合，并强调代表性不足的群体。更广泛的影响：该计划通过材料，设备和模块化子系统的跨学科进展解决了能源挑战的两个主要方面-高效的成本竞争力太阳能光伏和节能光网络。IGERT培养下一代科学家和工程师成为塑造我国可再生能源经济和政策的领导者。有效实施太阳能光伏发电需要了解社会背景以及全球意识。此外，高性能通信网络的有效实现具有超越传统边界的安全含义。国际合作伙伴网站是培训的关键和组成部分，通过分子束外延，现实世界的数据网络应用和第三世界的光伏部署提供材料增长。IGERT将与主要的工业合作伙伴合作，对哈莱姆和纳什维尔的本科和K-12学校进行宣传，鼓励代表性不足的群体进入高等教育的科学、技术、工程和数学领域。IGERT是一个NSF范围内的计划，旨在满足教育美国博士的挑战。具有跨学科背景的科学家和工程师，在所选学科的深厚知识，以及未来职业需求所需的技术，专业和个人技能。该计划旨在通过建立创新的研究生教育和培训新模式，在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。

This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) award facilitates the unique interdisciplinary training of Ph.D. scientists and engineers in the field of sustainable and renewable energy solutions. The energy economy is an immediate and grand challenge that must be tackled by current and future generations of scientists and engineers. Intellectual Merit: This program addresses this challenge by focusing on technology innovations in two subsystems of direct relevance: next-generation solar photovoltaics, and next-generation efficient optical data and communications networks. Both subsystems involve the manipulation of photons, through the realization of physical nanostructured devices and new spectroscopically-characterized functional materials, to deliver energy efficiencies dramatically better than current levels. The cross-training scientific research is synergistically integrated with innovative educational approaches and an emphasis on underrepresented groups. Broader Impacts: This program addresses two main aspects of the energy challenge - efficient cost-competitive solar photovoltaics and energy-efficient optical networks - through cross-disciplinary advances in materials, devices and modular subsystems. This IGERT trains the next-generation of scientists and engineers to become leaders in shaping our country's renewable energy economy and policy. Effective implementation of solar photovoltaics requires appreciation of the societal context as well as a global awareness. Additionally, effective implementations of high-performance communication networks have security implications beyond traditional boundaries. The international partner sites are critical and integral to the training, providing materials growth through molecular-beam-epitaxy, real-world data network applications, and third-world photovoltaic deployment. Working with major industrial partners, the IGERT will conduct outreach to undergraduate and K-12 schools in Harlem and Nashville, encouraging underrepresented groups to enter science, technology, engineering, and mathematics areas of higher education. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, 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.