History/Background

These specific courses are being developed as part of a National Science Foundation Grant entitled "Development of UW-PNNL Collaborative Curriculums in Nano-Science and Technology" for which Prof. Fumio Ohuchi in the MSE Department at the University of Washington is the principal investigator, PI, with Co-PIs including Charles T. Campbell (Chem), Scott T. Dunham (EE), and Thomas G. Stoebe. The overall goal of the proposal is to develop a prototype for a new type of collaborative education that meets broad and expanding needs in the areas of nanoscience and nanotechnology. An objective is to speed undergraduate and graduate entry into the nanotechnology field and enhance education and research by developing a new series of interdisciplinary nanotechnology courses.

These courses build upon a well-established base of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology related research and education efforts at the University of Washington (UW), at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and associated with Washington State University (WSU). The UW, which has a Center for Nanotechnology, established the first Nanoscience related graduate degree program in the USA. PNNL has a long history in areas currently associated with nanotechnology and is in the 3rd year of a Nanoscience and Technology Initiative. In April of 2001 the UW and PNNL signed an agreement forming a Joint Institute for Nanoscience that has both research and education goals. As you would expect the interactions are not with just one institution. Prof. Lai-Sheng Wang, Physics WSU has twice taught a course on Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology at PNNL.

A final important component to this rich educational mix is the Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory, a US Department of Energy user facility at PNNL, which has both research and educational missions. The EMSL has state of the art facilities associated with nanomaterials synthesis and characterization and an associated User Housing Facility. EMSL conference rooms can be used as classrooms, and the EMSL equipment allows students