PEOPLE & PLACES UPDATE

Grant to study size effects

Pradeep Sharma, assistant professor

of mechanical engineering at the

University of Houston, has received

a three-year, $262 471 Young

Investigator Program award from

the Office of Naval Research for his

proposal ‘Novel Size-Effects in the

Coupled Mechanical Deformation

and Opto-Electronic Behavior of

Quantum Dots and Wires’. “One

can suitably tailor the size and

biotreatment of a dot so that it

preferentially seeks and attaches to

tumor cells,” says Sharma. Also,

two doctoral students will have the

opportunity to work on Sharma’s

research for the next three years.

Swager heads department

Massachusetts Institute of

Technology’s Timothy Swager has

been made head of the chemistry

department. He is also associate

director of the Institute for Soldier

Nanotechnologies and leader of its

team on Mechanically Active

Materials and Devices. Swager is

best known for demonstrating the

amplifying ability of molecular

wires to create ultrasensitive

explosives sensors that rival the

sensitivity of bomb-sniffing dogs.

Sensors are being used in Iraq by

the US Marine Corps.

nGimat CEO appointed to NMAB

Engineered nanomaterials maker

nGimat’s chief executive officer,

Andrew Hunt, has been appointed to

the US National Materials Advisory

Board (NMAB, part of the National

Research Council’s Division on

Engineering and Physical Sciences).

“His technical knowledge of coating

and nanopowder production, as well

as his clear understanding of the

issues underlying the development

and growth of a small materials-

based business, will be extremely

valuable,” says NMAB director Gary

Fischman.

Sargent for Nano-Bio Instruments

Veeco Instruments has promoted

Jeannine Sargent to executive vice

president, general manager of its

Research Atomic Force Microscope

business unit, which has since been

renamed Nano-Bio Instruments to

optimize emerging opportunities in

nanotechnology, nanomaterials,

and bioinstrumentation. Sargent

retains her corporate marketing and

business development role.

Modzelewski joins NanoDynamicsF. Mark Modzelewski,

founder of The

NanoBusiness Alliance

and cofounder of

research and advisory

firm Lux Research, has

joined nanomaterials

and nanotechnology-

enabled product

manufacturer

NanoDynamics of

Buffalo, New York in

the new position of vice president of strategic

opportunities. Responsible include identifying and

forming strategic partnerships, corporate

relationships, licensing deals, joint ventures, and

acquisitions, as well as furthering government

funding and contracting opportunities. Modzelewski

is also a member of the Nanotechnology Technical

Advisory Group to The President’s Council of

Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

Award for Rice’s Drezek Rice University assistant professor of bioengineering

Rebekah Drezek has received the Association for the

Advancement of Medical Instrumentation’s 2005

Becton-Dickinson Career Achievement Award, which

includes a $1500 prize. Drezek was chosen for

groundbreaking developments in optically based

medical diagnostic tools for women’s healthcare,

especially creating new technologies for early

detection, diagnosis, and monitoring of breast,

ovarian, and endometrial cancer. Drezek’s work has

involved collaborating with Rice electrical and

computer engineering professor Naomi Halas on the

biomedical application of nanoshells.

Reward for spinning yarn At the Avantex Symposium in Frankfurt, Germany,

the Innovation Prize (‘New Materials’ category) went

to the University of Texas at Dallas’ Mei Zhang and

chemistry professor Ray H. Baughman, director of its

NanoTech Institute, together with wool spinning

expert Ken Atkinson of Australian national laboratory

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research

Organization (CSIRO). They were awarded for

discovering how pure multi-walled carbon nanotubes

can be spun into strong, flexible, electrically

conductive, multifunctional yarns. Many trillions of

nanotubes must be assembled in a fraction of a

second to make useful yarn, says Baughman. “We

accomplish this by a novel solid-state spinning

process, so restrictions on nanotube length and

corresponding yarn properties for wet spinning

processes can be avoided.”

Keck Futures Initiative grants The US National Academies Keck Futures Initiative

has awarded 14 projects Futures grants (of $50 000

or $75 000 each), to support interdisciplinary

research on nanoscience and nanotechnology. The

grants allow researchers to start recruiting students

and postdoctoral fellows, purchasing equipment, and

acquiring preliminary data, prior to competing for

larger awards from other sources. Recipients include:

• Robert Austin, Eric Wieschaus, and David Tank of

Princeton University (Up-Conversion Nanocrystals

for Nano-Imaging in Tissue);

• Nathan Baker and Enrico Di Cera of Washington

University (Molecular Engineering of Thrombin-

Based Nanocatalysts);

• Peter Burke of University of California, Irvine

(Initial Steps towards a Carbon Nanotube

Synthase);

• Andrew Ellington of University of Texas, Austin

and David Lavan of Yale University (Nano-

Biocomposites for Conversion of Sunlight to

Electricity);

• Shana Kelley of Boston College and Edward

Sargent of the University of Toronto (Designer

Biomolecular Templates for Inorganic Nanoparticle

Growth: Bottom-Up Control Over Infrared

Emitting Quantum Dot Synthesis and Properties);

• Philip Leduc of Carnegie Mellon University and

John Christopher Love of Harvard Medical School

(Biological Nanofactorie);

• Luke Lee of University of California, Berkeley

(Quantum Nanoplasmonic Probes for In Vivo

Molecular Imaging);

• Dan Luo of Cornell University and Todd Thorsen of

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Mesoscale

Patterning and Delivery of DNA-Based Nanoscale

Buckyballs using Microfluidic Device);

• Nancy Monteiro-Riviere of North Carolina State

University and Andrew Barron of Rice University

(Nature of Fullerene Nanomaterial Interactions

with Biological Systems);

• Vincent Rotello and Mark Tuominen of the

University of Massachusetts (Integrated

Nanoparticle-Protein Nanocomposite Systems);

• Holger Schmidt of the University of California,

Santa Cruz and Xing Su of Santa Clara, California

(Development of Integrated Biophotonic Raman

Sensors using Composite Nanoparticles).

Please send details of new appointments, honors, and awards to materialstoday@elsevier.com

August 2005 53

nt2p50_56.qxd 07/13/2005 12:31 Page 53