Cambridge NanoScience through Engineering to Application Doctoral Training Centre: Assembly of Functional NanoMaterials and NanoDevices

纳米科学是一门新兴的研究学科，它通过将成千上万的原子组合在一起，形成错综复杂的组合和连接，来制造设计材料或机器，从而实现全新的功能。理解和控制这门新科学的结果是纳米技术，据估计这是21世纪的巨大机遇之一，它可以制造出真正满足我们需求的设备，更便宜、更快、更酷、更智能、更高效。组装过程是促进纳米科学发现广泛实施的关键。英国必须在这一领域保持强势，才能从增加的投资中获得回报。大多数新出现的机会取决于从根本上改进这种纳米组织，它需要影响能源、医疗保健和纳米的主要社会主题。然而，尽管所有这些说法都是有充分概念基础的，但困难在于如何在这种极端规模上真正建立起来。比分子大，但比机器小，我们直到最近几年才学会如何培养大量的纳米组件。但是，如何将这些纳米元件整合到有源器件中是一个新的挑战。费力地拼凑东西的传统方法在这里是完全不可行的。我们的功能纳米材料和纳米器件组装博士培训中心的目标是培养跨学科纳米研究人员的高水平骨干，并激励他们开发全新的组装纳米机械的方法。参与Nano DTC的学者都有在物理、材料科学、化学和工程等一系列研究领域帮助年轻研究人员的经验，并且对将新想法转化为实际发明和与公司合作（其中许多是他们自己的衍生产品）表现出真正的兴趣。剑桥大学在这一领域有大量的科学项目，因此有很大的机会将它们联合起来，让博士生们在这些学科之间进行广泛的互动，并参与到纳米创新如何进入现实世界的基本工具中。Nano DTC将作为一个独特的博士托儿所，在第一年的正式课程和项目工作中，新生将共同居住和共同指导。因此，来自不同本科学科的学生将在一起度过相当长的时间，而每个研究生将根据他们的具体技能和愿望，在入学时选择由DTC管理委员会精心设计的第一年课程。第一年提供学位以外学科的额外技能，了解与纳米创新相关的企业前景，纳米科学的具体知识以及纳米器件和纳米材料自组装的应用，以及跨越不同学科的小项目，以扩大学生的经验和同行网络，帮助最终的博士项目选择。在以后的几年中，将安排一系列联合活动，包括Nano DTC队列学生领导的会议和行业审查。尽管在英国各地都可以找到纳米创业的个别例子，但研究生很少接触到这种经历，而且经常被视为不利于他们的研究进展。从纳米研究到应用的项目中反复出现的一个主题是，早期的纳米构建策略如何从最终的规模、实施路线、市场潜力和社会意识中受益。反过来，这种联合的方法反馈到基础科学过程中，经常将研究项目延伸到常规路径之外，并刺激高影响力的科学和创新。剑桥纳米DTC的目标是使这种体验普遍为英国纳米博士生的一个新品牌。

NanoScience is the emerging research discipline of building designer materials or machines which do entirely new things, by combining thousands of atoms arranged in intricate assemblies and connections. Understanding and controlling this new science results in NanoTechnology estimated to be one of the massive opportunities in the 21st Century, for making devices that really do what we want cheaper, faster, cooler, smarter and more efficiently. The process of assembly is the key to fostering widespread implementation of nanoscience discoveries. This is an area in which the UK must be strong to reap the rewards of increased investment. Most emerging opportunities depend on radically improving such nano-organisation, needed to impact major societal themes of Energy, Healthcare and Nano. However despite all these claims, which are mostly well-founded conceptually, the difficult is in how to really build on this extreme scale. Bigger than molecules but smaller than machinery, we have only learnt in recent years how to grow a plethora of nano-components. But perfecting ways to bring together these nano-components into active devices is the new challenge. Traditional approaches that piece things together laboriously are completely unfeasible here. The aim of our Doctoral Training Centre in Assembly of Functional NanoMaterials and NanoDevices is to hothouse training of a high-calibre cadre of inter-disciplinary nano-researchers and spur them to develop entirely new ways to assemble nano-machinery for doing something useful. The academics involved in this Nano DTC have all had experience of helping to teach young researchers across a range of research fields such as Physics, Materials Science, Chemistry and Engineering, and have also shown a real interest in developing novel ideas into practical inventions and engaged with companies (many of them their own spin-offs). The University of Cambridge has a large number of scientific programmes in this area, so a large opportunity exists to join them up, with the PhD students all interacting very widely across these disciplines, as well as engaging with the nitty-gritty tools of how nano-innovation can make it out into the real world.The Nano DTC will operate as a distinct PhD nursery, with the entry co-housed and jointly mentored in the initial year of formal courses and project work. Students from a range of undergraduate disciplines will thus spend considerable time together while each postgraduate will have a selection of 1st year courses crafted on entry by the DTC management committee, depending on their specific skill set and aspirations. The initial year provides additional skills in disciplines outside their degree, understanding of the Enterprise landscape relating to Nano-Innovation, specific knowledge of the nanoscience and application of self-assembly to NanoDevices and NanoMaterials, and miniprojects spanning different disciplines to broaden students' experience and peer networks, aiding final PhD project selection. A range of joint activities are programmed in later years including Nano DTC cohort student-led conferences, and industry reviews.Although individual examples of nano-entrepreneurship can be found across the UK, graduate students are rarely exposed to this experience, and frequently it is seen as detrimental to their research progress. A repeated theme emerging from nano research-to-application projects is how early-stage nano-construction strategies benefit from being informed by eventual scale-up, implementation routes, market potential and societal awareness. In turn, this joined up approach feeds back into the basic science process, frequently stretching research programs beyond the well-trodden paths and stimulating high impact science as well as innovation. The aim of the Cambridge Nano DTC is to make this experience pervasive for a new brand of UK Nano PhD students.