REU Site: Nanoscale Science and Engineering at Vanderbilt University

NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION:

The Vanderbilt Institute for Nanoscale Science and Engineering (VINSE) will host a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site that offers science and engineering undergraduate students the opportunity to work closely with faculty on forefront research projects in the field of nanoscale science and engineering. The overarching theme of the research projects are nanomaterials growth, innovation, fabrication, and characterization.

The projects are designed and chosen to build a sense of community among the students and the participating faculty and to expose the REU students broadly to research at the cutting edge of nanoscale science and engineering. The students are offered training opportunities in the integration of research with education and outreach through the Vanderbilt Summer Academy for high school students.

Additionally, to facilitate the continued mentoring of the REU students after the research experience is completed and enhance the probability of the students continuing in STEM research, 'home mentors' are invited to visit Vanderbilt to participate in the capstone events and VINSE REU alumni will be invited to meet and talk with the students about their experiences and how this led to their careers in STEM fields. Historical data shows that students have a heightened desire for graduate studies, with 97% remaining in STEM and 72% entering graduate school at institutions beyond their undergraduate institution, ensuring students obtain the richest experience.

Long term, the REU site contributes to building a workforce educated in and motivated towards STEM disciplines and specifically, interdisciplinary research in nanoscience and nanotechnology. The program places strong emphasis on recruiting students from underrepresented minority groups and schools with limited research opportunities; the REU program and the VINSE faculty have collaborators at several institutions, including nearby HBCU Fisk University that are committed to helping us identify potential REU students.

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION:

The promise of nanoscience and nanotechnology to revolutionize our lives in multiple ways has captured the imagination of scientists, the attention of the media, and the general public. Nanoscience and nanotechnology are based on the ability to synthesize, organize, characterize, and manipulate matter systematically and precisely at the nanoscale, creating uniquely functional materials that can be inorganic, organic or biological, or a hybrid of any two or more of these.

Thus, nanoscience and nanotechnology pose formidable challenges that cut across traditionally distinct disciplines; to meet these challenges, interdisciplinary training of future scientists and engineers in the broad field of nanotechnology is of paramount importance. This is especially pertinent in light of the recent passage of the CHIPS and Science Act.

To achieve this goal the VINSE summer REU site offers STEM undergraduates the opportunity to work closely with faculty on state-of-the-art research projects in the field of nanoscale science and engineering. VINSE faculty provide REU students with a true interdisciplinary research experience in an environment where physicists, chemists, biologists, and engineers of all disciplines collaboratively solve problems and create new scientific understanding.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.