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UAlbany NanoCollege receives over $5 million in federal funding to support innovations driven by nanoscale research and education
(Nanowerk News) The College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany announced today that it has been selected to receive more than $5 million in federal funding for a host of nanotechnology-enabled education and research programs that support innovative applications for the clean energy, environmental, nanomedicine and defense industries.
With this latest announcement, CNSE has received more than $70 million in federal funding awards over the past year from a variety of agencies, including the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Air Force (AFRL) and Naval (NRL) Research Labs, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), among others.
"The selection of the UAlbany NanoCollege for a growing infusion of federal funding amid an increasingly competitive landscape underscores the emergence of CNSE as a home for game-changing education and pioneering research that target the most critical challenges of the 21st century: green and environmentally friendly technologies, innovative health care, and next-generation military applications," said CNSE Senior Vice President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Alain E. Kaloyeros. "On behalf of CNSE, I am delighted to congratulate Professors Haldar, Lee, Efstathiadis, Carpenter, Cady, Castracane, Begley and Geer on the receipt of these prestigious federal grants, and I look forward to seeing the results of their leading-edge research."
In the area of clean energy and environmental technologies, Pradeep Haldar, CNSE Professor and Head of Nanoeconomics and Vice President for Clean Energy Programs, and Ji Ung Lee, CNSE Empire Innovation Professor of Nanoscale Engineering, received an NSF grant of $1 million to create Enhancing Nanotechnology Advances in Businesses Leveraging Energy (ENABLE), which will support integration and scale-up of graphene materials to improve performance and reliability for solar cells, smart windows and ultracapacitors. Professor Haldar and Harry Efstathiadis, CNSE Associate Professor of Nanoengineering, received an NSF grant of $600,000 to develop Nanotechnology Innovations for Clean Energy – Innovative Partnerships (NICE-IP) to move discoveries from the laboratory into the marketplace, starting with innovations in silicon nanowires.
In addition, CNSE Associate Professor of Nanoengineering Michael Carpenter received a $300,000 award from DOE to develop cost-effective sensing technologies that can function in harsh, high-temperature operating environments such as power systems, and CNSE Assistant Professor of Nanobioscience Nathaniel Cady received $300,000 in DOE funding to deploy a novel cell-printing system to study how bacteria can be used to help clean up decontaminated groundwater at DOE sites.
In health care, Professor Cady received two federal grants: a $220,000 award from NIH to develop a method known as surface plasmon resonance (SPR) to detect and analyze cancer cells circulating in human blood, and a $212,000 grant from the National Institutes of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) to study small molecules that could help to prevent plaque formation and cavities.
Additionally, James Castracane, CNSE Professor and Head of Nanobioscience, received a $650,000 grant from NIH to apply nanofabrication methods to create an implantable device, called the NANIVID, to collect cancer cells as they migrate away from primary tumor sites, a project that is part of a Tumor Microenvironment Network (TMEN) research center, one of 11 new national centers created by the National Cancer Institute. And, Thomas Begley, CNSE Associate Professor of Nanobioscience and Director of the NanoHealth and Safety Center, was awarded a $420,000 grant from the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to develop a biological sensor to measure a cell's ability to respond to DNA damage, which could be used to identify people susceptible to cancer or to help develop therapeutic regiments that target DNA to eradicate disease.
In the area of military technologies, CNSE Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Nanoscience Robert Geer received a $750,000 grant from AFRL to develop advanced 3D integrated circuits (3DICs) to enable high-performance, low-power nanoelectronics applications for the Air Force; and Professor Lee was awarded a $615,000 grant from NRL to examine the fundamental properties of nanoelectronics devices for space and military applications.
About CNSE
The UAlbany CNSE is the first college in the world dedicated to education, research, development and deployment in the emerging disciplines of nanoscience, nanoengineering, nanobioscience and nanoeconomics. With more than $14 billon in high-tech investments, CNSE represents the world's most advanced university-driven research enterprise, offering students a one-of-a-kind academic experience and providing over 300 corporate partners with access to an unmatched ecosystem for leading-edge R&D and commercialization of nanoelectronics and nanotechnology innovations. CNSE's footprint spans upstate New York, including its Albany NanoTech Complex, an 800,000-square-foot megaplex with the only fully-integrated, 300mm wafer, computer chip pilot prototyping and demonstration line within 85,000 square feet of Class 1 capable cleanrooms. More than 2,600 scientists, researchers, engineers, students and faculty work here, from companies including IBM, Intel, GlobalFoundries, SEMATECH, Samsung, TSMC, Toshiba, Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron, ASML and Novellus Systems. An expansion now underway, part of which will house the world's first Global 450mm Consortium, will add nearly 500,000 square feet of next-generation infrastructure, an additional 50,000 square feet of Class 1 capable cleanrooms, and more than 1,000 scientists, researchers and engineers from CNSE and global corporations. In addition, CNSE's Solar Energy Development Center in Halfmoon provides a prototyping and demonstration line for next-generation CIGS thin-film solar cells. CNSE's Smart Systems Technology and Commercialization Center of Excellence (STC) in Rochester offers state-of-the-art capabilities for MEMS fabrication and packaging. CNSE also co-founded and manages operations at the Computer Chip Commercialization Center at SUNYIT in Utica and is a co-founder of the Nanotechnology Innovation and Commercialization Excelerator in Syracuse. For information, visit www.cnse.albany.edu.
Source: CNSE