Penn gets $11.4M for nanotech grant
by Byron Kho
The Daily Pennsylvanian
September 27, 2004
The National Science Foundation announced awards totaling $69 million to Penn and five other institutions toward the creation of six new Nanoscale Science and Engineering centers, in addition to the eight that have been established since 2001, the foundation announced Tuesday.
Penn will receive a renewable grant of $11.4 million over five years to develop a new Center on Molecular Function at the Nano/Bio Interface under the direction of Dawn Bonnell, a professor in Penn's Department of Materials Science and Engineering. While Penn has received many grants from the NSF before, this is the first time it has received an NSEC grant.
Following Penn's historical strengths in nanotechnology -- the use of atoms and single molecules to advance modern production methods -- over the past decade, the new center will attempt to unite efforts across the University, in order to understand the interface of physical and biological systems at the molecular level.
"We have a history of inventing some of these technologies," Bonnell said. "With this center, we will be able to incubate more of these single molecules and study them a lot closer."
Research programs at the new center will focus on initiatives in biomolecular function and molecular motion through the study of single molecules. Practical applications of nanotechnology include nanoscale device manufacturing and better delivery of therapeutic drugs.
"We will combine biological principles, molecular synthesis expertise from the School of Medicine, theory from the Physics Department and developments from chemistry and engineering -- like single-molecule probes -- to control and study molecular motion," Bonnell said.
According to Bonnell, the nanotechnology program will also work with Penn's Center for Bioethics in order to "lead the national discussion on the ethical considerations surrounding nanoscale science and its potential impact on humanity."
An educational component to the NSEC includes a partnership with the School District of Philadelphia to introduce nanotechnology to high school students. In addition, the center will support the undergraduate minor and doctorate certificate program in nanotechnology, unveiled early last year.
Initially to be housed in the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter, the NSEC will eventually be housed in its own building, which Bonnell hopes to see constructed in the next four years.
Other universities receiving similar NSEC grants include Stanford University, the University of Wisconsin, Ohio State University, Northeastern University and the University of California, Berkeley.
The NSF grants come from a $1 billion general disbursement for the National Nanotechnology Initiative, a federally supported program that supports multi-agency efforts on nanotechnology.
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