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Questions&answers |
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Creating a big thing out of almost nothing |
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UGA’s
new Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center
brings scientists together |
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By Alan Flurry
aflurry@engr.uga.edu
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Bill Dennis |
Physics professor Bill Dennis is director of the new Nanoscale
Science and Engineering Center—or NanoSEC—at
UGA. He talked with Columns about nanotechnology on
campus.
Columns: I understand UGA has its first nanotechnology
course, PHYS 4200-6200, and I’d like to talk about that.
Dennis: I think it’s worth saying that this is
the second time that we’ve offered it—the first
time was sort of experimental. This time it actually exists
as a class within the university system.
We also have some ideas for some other classes. One is a nanofabrication
lab class, where the kids actually get hands-on experience using
nanofabrication techniques and looking at the structures that
they’ve made.
We also hope to put together a multi-instructor type of course,
where computational techniques are used to model nanosystems
and deal with things on the atomic scale up to the macroscopic
scale.
Columns: So this initial group of courses will anchor
the introduction of nanotech on campus?
Dennis: These courses are going to form the centerpiece
of what we hope will be a graduate nanotechnology certificate
program. The idea is to use that as a platform to compete for
NSF initiatives.
Columns: Does the NanoSEC have members?
Dennis: Basically our membership is people who demonstrate
they’re working in nanotechnology or working in something
that is impacted by it. At the moment we have about 30 members,
from eight departments across four colleges.
The idea is to have a common, central voice, so that we can
try and get improved facilities that will benefit all of us.
I’d like to hope that NanoSEC is highlighting people’s
research, a lot of which has been going on for many years but
just didn’t have the mechanisms to make it as up-front
as it is now.
Columns: Would you say that nanotechnology is a sub-discipline
of physics?
Dennis: What defines nanotechnology is the scale and—to
be a little bit more specific—some of the functionality
has to come out of that scale. It’s not enough to shrink
something down to nano size if you just have a smaller object
that’s functionally not different.
Nanoscience is not a discipline of physics—it truly is
a cross-disciplinary field that’s in the process, at the
moment, of still being defined. If you look at many of the collaborations
that are going on, they exist among and between physics, biological
engineering, chemistry, vet med, pharmacy, genetics—it’s
amazing how important these cross-cutting collaborations are.
That’s where the action is.
Columns: How is nanotech developing at other places?
Dennis: Nationally there are much bigger centers. We
try and have collaborations with life sciences, which are strong
on campus.
Nanotechnology is still new. The government is pumping a lot
of money into it, though it’s not clear at this stage
how great an impact nanotech will actually have on our lives.
But it goes from the continual shrinking of microfabrication
down into nanofabrication, to all sorts of new applications—like
new sports equipment or better, tougher fabric for clothes.
Columns: And how are universities preparing to take
advantage of that government emphasis?
Dennis: The government is also putting emphasis on
education—K-12—teaching our kids something about
nanotechnology. And that’s something that NanoSEC has
been involved in, in various ways. It’s important to let
high schoolers know that it’s out there and that it will
impact them.
In my limited experience it’s something these kids aren’t
aware of, but if you look at some of the projections that nanotechnology
will have on the global economy, many in school at the moment
are probably going to have nanotechnology-related careers.
Presentations to students and tours are also the type of outreach
that is a good way of recruiting interested students to UGA.
Columns: It’s odd to be still trying to define
something that is expected to affect the lives of millions of
people. But it’s not particularly theoretical, like string
theory. Is it just a matter of what we can do physically?
Dennis: The buzz word, I guess, is nanotechnology,
although that involves nanoscience and nanoengineering. But
it’s about devices and functionality—new improved
devices, new improved materials. We all like “new and
improved.”
Columns: And are we going to watch the laws of physics
bend and twist as things get smaller?
Dennis: No. What we’re going to do, though, is
find that different laws will become important. Do things behave
the way our intuition tells us? Maybe not, because our intuition
is built on what we experience macroscopically. So I don’t
think we will challenge the laws of physics so much as just
see new laws come into play, ones that we’re not so familiar
with. |
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