Nanotechnology: where science fiction meets reality

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Do you ever wonder about our future? Do you ever imagine how discoveries could make the impossible a reality? Do you ever wish you had cures for threatening diseases at hand?

Nanotechnology, while not providing a cure for everything, is defined by the length scale when scientists and engineers discover new phenomena. It provides exquisite new tools to engineer novel materials and devices at the nanoscale, and to study biology. A nanometer, one billionth of a meter, is about 10,000 times narrower than a human hair. Major technological revolutions, including the industrial revolution and the dawn of the information era, have revealed how new discoveries can drastically change our lives. There is no doubt that rapid technological transformations require new paradigms of how to educate the next generation of leaders in academia and industry.

By virtue of their interdisciplinary nature, rapid advances in nanoscale science and technology can only thrive in a collaborative environment in which faculty and students from different disciplines discuss ideas, work together, and share their expertise.

The Center for Nanotechnology at the University of Washington was created in 1997 to address these changing realities. It brings together faculty members and students from the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Pharmacy, and the School of Medicine. The Center enjoys major financial support from the University of Washington Initiatives Fund (UIF) and National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (NSF-IGERT) program.

Learn more about Nanotechnology at the University of Washington and our programs.

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