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Thursday, October 9, 2008, Volume 8, Issue 4

 

A New Facility – The Millennium Science Complex 

 

Penn State’s showplace research building for 21st century science is breaking ground in fall 2008 on Pollock fields in the heart of the University Park campus. The Millennium Science Complex will provide a central location for faculty and students involved in materials research to collaborate across departmental boundaries in a state-of-the-art research facility. The Board of Trustees of the University approved during their regular September meeting what will be one of the largest capital projects in the University’s history with a total cost of $215,000,000.

 

Designed by the internationally renowned firm of Rafael Viñoly Architects, this 275,000 square foot building will bring together both materials researchers and life scientists from the Materials Research Institute and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. Through this interface, the Millennium Science Complex will foster collaborations in the developing convergence of materials and biomedical engineering.

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Research Spotlight

 

Near Infrared Nanoparticles Shine a Bright Light on Cancer

 

A new imaging method for breast cancer has been developed by a team of scientists from Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Penn State College of Medicine and the departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Physics at Penn State. Their research, utilizing encapsulated fluorescent molecules in calcium phosphate nanoparticles and non-toxic near infrared imaging (NIR), appears in the Sept. 19 on-line issue of ACS Nano.

 

More effective early detection of diseases is one of the promises of nanotechnology. Current imaging methods, such as x-rays and magnetic resonance imaging, are limited in the size of tumors they can detect, the depth they can penetrate the body, and by their potential side effects. Another promising imaging technique, near infrared bioimaging, is a noninvasive, painless, and non-ionizing form of radiation that operates at wavelengths just above that of visible light. By combining NIR imaging with nanoparticles containing a NIR fluorescing dye, indocyanine green, the researchers were able to detect 5mm diameter breast cancer tumors in a live mouse model over a period of four or more days.

 

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Penn State Receives $13.2M for Nanoscale Science Center

 

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Penn State University $13.2 million over six years to continue the research and educational activities of its Center for Nanoscale Science, a Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC).

 

"The goal of the Center is to design and create new materials with unprecedented properties and functions, starting with nanometer-scale building blocks," says Thomas Mallouk, DuPont Professor of Materials Chemistry and Physics at Penn State and Director of the MRSEC. Nationally, there are 27 such centers supported by NSF, each with a different technical focus. Universities compete for MRSEC funding every three years. In the current competition, Penn State and 13 other universities were selected for funding from among 100 universities that had submitted proposals.

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Taylor Lecture 2008  

 

The 2008 Taylor Lecture sponsored by the Department of Materials Science and Engineering brought another in a long line of distinguished scientists to University Park to discuss his work. This year’s Taylor Award was presented to John B. Goodenough, of the University of Texas at Austin, an international authority on ferromagnetism. Preceding his talk, three Penn State scientists presented their own recent research in the field of complex oxides.

 

The prospect for tunable multifunctional devices makes research in complex oxides a large and productive field for applied science. When elements interact with oxygen or air, they form oxides, some of which, depending on their structure, have useful electronic and magnetic properties. These properties have been exploited for information storage and retrieval in high density memory devices, dielectric materials for microelectronic devices, piezomaterials for sensors and miniature motors, and high temperature superconductivity. They offer a rich range of phenomena in one class of materials, said Venkatraman Gopalan, professor of materials science and this year’s chair of the Taylor Award selection committee, in his opening remarks. He then introduced three “stars” of complex oxide research at Penn State.

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Nano Commercialization Workshop  


Around 30 participants involved with nanotechnology and technology transfer attended a workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation on the University Park campus September 23rd. The workshop, titled Commercializing Nanotechnology, is the second of three meetings intended to foster the translation of university research to the marketplace.

 

Nanotechnology was expected to add a trillion dollars a year to the economy by 2009 and two trillion in manufactured goods by 2014. Are we on pace to live up to those high expectations?

 

Not even close, says Angus Kingon, a professor of engineering and entrepreneurship at Brown University, in a workshop hosted by the Materials Research Institute in conjunction with Lehigh University and the Pennsylvania Nanomaterials Commercialization Center.

 

The reality is that most of the 580 products identified as “nano” are such items as sunscreens, foot powders, and tennis racquets, most of them in the form of powders added to already existing products. The amazing fundamental research going on at the top research universities in the U.S. funded by around a billion dollars a year in grants is not translating into the kind of breakthrough, revolutionary impact Congress expected back in 1999 when the funding began, Kingon contends.

 

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New to MRI  

Kathleen

 

William Mansfield will join the Nanofab staff next week as the Director of Operations. Bill will be responsible for day to day activities of the facility and interfacing with both our external and internal user community. Bill comes to us with a wealth of experience in fabrication operation and management and was most recently the technical manager of the Micro and Nanofabrication Research Lab at Alcatel –Lucent Technologies in Murray Hill, New Jersey.

 

Kathleen Gehoski recently joined the nanofab as an imprint lithography process engineer. Her previous experience includes 25 years working in Motorola’s fabrication facility in Tempe, Arizona working on a tool set very similar to what Penn State maintains in our fab.

 

 

Grants and Contracts

 

Materials research accounted for more than $15.2 million in contracts and grants for August and September! The largest of these contracts and grants (those greater than $200K) are listed below, along with a link to the complete list of contracts and grants. These data are provided by OSP Strategic Information Management System.

 

 

For a complete list of the contracts and grants for August and September go to:
http://www.mri.psu.edu/awards.asp?awardperiod=0809

Seminars  

 

Friday, October 10, 2008

2:30 PM - 102 Chemistry Building

"Exploring Electron Transfer: From Simple Photochemistry to Energy Conversion"

Troy Van Voorhis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 

Thursday, October 16, 2008

10:10 AM - 26 Hosler Building

"Templated Titania Coatings for Flexible Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells"

Dunbar Birnie, Professor of Ceramic Engineering, Rutgers University

Host - MATSE

Series - Materials Science and Engineering 590

 

2:00 PM - 125 Reber

"Challenges of Carbon Dioxide Capture as a Global Warming Mitigation Strategy"

Dr. George Muntean, Chief Engineer & Director of Transportation Programs Energy and Environment, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Series - Advanced Power Generation Seminar Series

 

More Seminars:   http://www.mri.psu.edu/seminars.asp