Scanning Electron Microscope image of a carbon inverse opal
Nano at the Border
As co-founder of the “Nano at the Border” consortium (officially started in January 2002), the UTD NanoTech Institute has worked to support educational activities and research in nanotechnology at the University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) and University of Texas Pan American (UTPA).
Located in the Rio Grande Valley at the Mexico-US border, UTB and UTPA are undergraduate, predominantly minority institutions, with 88% and 95% Hispanic enrollment, respectively.
“Nano at the Border” has already resulted in three technical meetings, education-focused meeting in Brownsville, the sharing of equipment and funding, a UTB faculty member spending the summer of 2004 working at the Institute (Professor Andreas Hanke), and one UTD Ph.D. graduate accepting a faculty position at UTPA (Professor Jose Gutierrez).
The NanoTech Institute also works closely with universities in Mexico, and along with the University of Guanajuato, hosts an annual U.S.-Mexico Workshop entitled “Nanoscience for Advanced Applications: On Crossroads of Disciplines.” Next year’s workshop will be held on the UTD campus on March 22 - 25, 2006. This workshop is aimed at strengthening the collaborative ties between the United States and Mexico. The first workshop, “Nanoscience for Advanced Applications: on Crossroads of Disciplines”, was held at the University of Guanajuato (UG) in Guanajuato, Mexico on February 16 - 19, 2005.
Collaborations between UTD and UG have resulted in 12 students from UG training during extended stays in UTD laboratories. Of the twelve, two students came in the summers of 2002 and 2003, three came in the summer of 2004, and six came in 2005. Another came in 2005 and is presently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Physics of UTD.
The 2005 workshop featured 29 invited lectures from leaders in the fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology and included a keynote address from Alan MacDiarmid who shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Among the other speakers were distinquished members of national laboratories, businesses, and university faculty.
Updated: November 15, 2005
