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 [email protected]
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