Nanotechnology Research Laboratories

The new program, which was developed by faculty in the VCU Departments of Chemistry and Physics, is designed to cross-train students in the physical sciences of chemistry and physics with particular focus on how the science changes at reduced dimensions. There is a potential for other departments to become more involved as the program develops.

The researchers in the Future Materials Laboratory are developing and utilizing a unique set of multiscale experimental and computational methods to study the mechanical behavior of a broad range of advanced materials, at the atomistic, micro, and macroscales.

The B.S. degree program in Nanoscience (NANO) has recently been approved. Students can declare their major in NANO starting in Spring 2015.

The Virginia Tech Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology is a multi-department, interdisciplinary research center focused on advancing nanoscale science and engineering research and education with an emphasis on sustainability. They develop nanoscale technologies and leverage these technologies to help remedy global sustainability challenges in areas such as clean air and water, waste minimization, environmental remediation, food safety, and renewable energy.

This project assembles a collaborative team of interdisciplinary secondary science/math teachers and university scientists studying nanoscale processes and science education. As part of their collaborative effort, they hope to develop materials and resources that can be fit into secondary science or math curriculum.

This research group, directed by Professor Michael Hochella within the Department of Geosciences, works in the field of nanoscience applied to environmental geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and mineralogy.

The NCFL was created to provide researchers with the tools to work in converging disciplines at these dimensions. Established in 2007, it is an initiative of the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science at Virginia Tech. The facility is equipped with more than $10 million in highly specialized equipment, more than half of which was made possible through funding provided by Commonwealth Research Initiative. It seeks to help researchers investigate novel phenomena and build transforming technologies that solve critical challenges.

Addressing pressing issues of human society, research at the Nanotech Center is driven by outcome-based relevance in the medical fields, in alternative energy technologies, and in technologies that aid in the development of peaceful nations.

An interdisciplinary group of scientists using the tools of nanotechnology to study biology at the smallest scale. The group's goals are to learn more about the basic functions and interactions of biological molecules and to use what they find to achieve new capabilities with biomedical implications. In pursuing this goal, they bring together aspects of physics, engineering, molecular biology, and many other disciplines.

The department conducts research on nanomaterials.