Nuckolls Student Wins Goldwater Sciences Scholarship
Columbia College sophomore Terence Choy, who has been researching molecular electronics and nanotechnology in Prof. Colin Nuckolls' lab, has been awarded a Goldwater Sciences Scholarship. The scholarship, one of four awarded at Columbia and only 320 nationwide, provides a $7,500 per year scholarship in to sophomores and juniors who plan to pursue careers in math, natural sciences, or engineering. (more information)

Grad Student Gives Mechanical Engineering Talk
NSEC graduate student Bhupesh Chandra, a member of Prof. James Hone's group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, gave a talk on February 25, 2005 on "Carbon Nanotubes: Can they substitute copper in IC interconnects?" This talk was part of the Mechanical Engineering Student Graduate Seminar Series.

Yardley Speaks at National Engineers' Week
NSEC Managing Director Jim Yardley was the keynote speaker at a National Engineers' Week event at the New York Academy of Sciences on February 24. The lecture, entitled "Nano-Science and Technology - Past, Present, and Future," was accredited as a professional development course by the American Society of Civil Engineers Metropolitan Section.

Stormer Addresses Spanish Parliament to Kick Off International Year of Physics
NSEC Scientific Director Horst Stormer gave a one-hour plenary address on on nanoscience to the Spanish Parliament on February 11 as part of the inaugural event of the International Year of Physics in Spain. The audience was 200-300 people, half parliamentarians and half scientists. A number of Spanish scientists gave brief talks as well.

Stephen O'Brien's paper "Self-organizing high-density single-walled carbon nanotube arrays from surfactant suspensions" (Nanotechnology 15, 1450-1454 (2004)) was one of the most highly downloaded articles in the entire journal Nanotechnology in 2004. It was downloaded a total of 951 times over the course of the year. 250 of these downloads happened in the first month after publication.

Annual Arden House Retreat
NSEC researchers gathered for the annual retreat on January 14 and 15, 2005 at Arden House in Harriman, NY. Almost everyone involved with the center was there, from senior faculty members to undergraduate students. It was an intensive weekend of scientific talks, poster presentations, and discussion, but there were also valuable opportunities for informal interactions.

Grad Student Featured in NYSTAR Calendar
The New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research created a 2005 calendar highlighting high-tech activities taking place in New York State. Columbia graduate student Feng Wang, part of the Heinz group in the Physics Department, was featured for the month of November. The calendar was distributed to high-level decision-makers in the realm of science and technology in New York and Washington.

NSEC Researchers Characterize Carbon Nanotubes
A team of scientists including Louis Brus, Tony Heinz, Stephen O'Brien, and James Hone has discovered a new technique for rapidly characterizing the electronic structure of individual carbon nanotube molecules. This discovery will allow scientists to correlate observed properties of electronic devices built on single nanotubes with the chemical structure of the nanotube. The work was published in Science. (more information)

Class Visit to NSEC
Neil Wang's class from Murray Bergtraum High School in Manhattan visited the Nanocenter on Wednesday, November 17. The trip was a prize given out at Nano-Day. The students visited chemistry and physics labs as well as the CEPSR Clean Room. They learned about the research going on within NSEC, and were quite enthusiastic about what they saw.

Girls Science Day a Success
NSEC sponsored the Girls Science Day organized by Women in Science at Columbia on Saturday, November 13. Over 60 middle school girls spent the day at Columbia to see science demonstrations and participate in chemistry and physics experiments. The event was part of a larger effort to attract more women in to science and engineering fields. The day was a success with students and parents alike. (more information: 1, 2, 3)

Nuckolls Wins Mayor's Award
Prof. Colin Nuckolls has been awarded the New York City Mayor's Medal for Excellence in Science for a young investigator. The awards, which are administered by the New York Academy of Sciences, are given annually to professionals under the age of 40 who live or work in the City of New York for their accomplishments in research or innovative applications in science and technology. They are part of the Mayor's Awards for Excellence in Science and Technology. The medals were awarded in a ceremony on October 13, 2004. (more information, NY Times article)

Avouris to Speak at Industrial Physics Forum
NSEC industrial collaborator Dr. Phaedon Avouris, of IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center, will be speaking in the Frontiers in Physics session at the American Institute of Physics' 2004 Industrial Physics Forum, "Sustaining the Information Technology Revolution." The meeting will be October 24-26, 2004 at T. J. Watson. (more information)

Stormer to Speak at Rowan University
Nanocenter Director Horst Stormer will give a lecture entitled "Small Wonders: The World of Nanoscience" at Rowan University on October 28, 2004 at 1:30 p.m. in the Betty Long Lecture Room in Rowan Hall. The lecture is part of the ongoing Henry M. Rowan Speaker Series, which is sponsored by the Rowan College of Engineering and the Dean's Advisory Council. (more information)

Prof. Michael Loy to Visit Nanocenter, Fall 2004
We are pleased to announce that Prof. Michael M. Loy will be visiting the Columbia Nanocenter and the Department of Physics for the Fall semester of 2004. Prof. Loy is Professor of Physics at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology where he has served as Dean of Science for the past six years. His recent work involves desorption of molecules from surfaces induced by femtosecond laser pulses. (more information)

Prof. Kwang Kim to Visit Nanocenter, 2004-05
The Columbia Nanocenter is pleased to welcome Prof. Kwang S. Kim, who will be visiting from Pohang University of Science and Technology in Pohong, Korea for 2004-05. He is currently director of the Center for Superfunctional Materials at Pohang University, where his research interests include designing novel functional molecular systems through elucidation of molecular interactions and understanding of electron, photon, and proton dynamics, and studying the properties of nanomaterials in finite dimensions. (more information)

Kristen Gallagher became the NSEC Program Coordinator in October 2004. In April 2004, she received a Ph.D. in English Literature from the SUNY Buffalo Poetics Program. She has extensive experience as a program coordinator, as a writer, and has been involved in various communications media including radio.

Louis Brus has won the American Chemical Society Award in the Chemistry of Materials. The award, sponsored by E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, is given to "recognize and encourage creative work in the chemistry of materials." It will be awarded at the 229th ACS National Meeting in March 2005, where Prof. Brus will give an award address to the Division of Physical Chemistry. (more information)

Nuckolls/Blanchet Nanotube Circuit Work Highlighted
Joint work on nanotube networks done by Colin Nuckolls and collaborator Graciela Blanchet of DuPont Central Research was featured in Technology Research News in September of 2004. They have devised a way to make a random, self-assembled network of carbon nanotubes embedded in polymer that preserves the nanotubes' electrical conductivity and is suitable for thermal printing processes. These networks could eventually be used to make large, inexpensive electrical signs or displays. The work was published in Applied Physics Letters 85, 828-830 (2004). (more information)

Nano-Day in Small Times
Nano-Day in New York, presented by NSEC and the City College of New York on April 17, 2004, was featured in a brief article in the July-August 2004 issue of Small Times. The article, which included a photo from Nano-Day, was a roundup of the various "Nano Days" taking place around the country and the world.

Philip Kim was featured in a profile in the August 5 edition of the New York Sun. The article discussed his work attempting to make graphene sheets with a "nano-pencil."

Stephen O'Brien has been awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER award for his work in materials research. The grant, entitled "Transition Metal Oxide Nanocrystals and Composite Nanostructures," begins August 1. Prof. O'Brien will be studying transition metal oxide nanocrystals with an eye towards applications in magnetism and ferroelectricity that will ultimately lead to advances in electrical and electronic devices. The award also includes outreach to middle and high school students. (more information)

Ascheron Gives Two Talks
Dr. Claus Ascheron, Executive Editor in Physics at Springer-Verlag, came to Columbia on July 22, 2004. He spoke to the NSEC, MRSEC, EMSI, and Chemistry REU students on Presentation Skills, in preparation for the talks they will give at the end of the summer. He also gave a short course on Scientific Creativity to a more general audience. Both lectures were very well received.

Brookhaven - Columbia Symposium
The NSEC, MRSEC, EMSI, and Chemistry Department REU programs sponsored a special symposium on "Modern Materials and Materials Chemistry" that brought together scientists from Brookhaven National Laboratory and Columbia University on July 15, 2004. Speakers included Lance Cooley, Michael G. White, Jose A. Rodriguez, Joanna Fowler, and Stanislaus Wong from Brookhaven, and Stephen O'Brien and Colin Nuckolls from Columbia. A wide range of good and interesting science was presented. Over 100 people attended the symposium.

Teachers Enter Laboratories
Three local high school and middle school teachers are doing research in NSEC laboratories this summer as part of the Summer Research Program for Science Teachers. Annie Chien of School of the Future in Manhattan is working in Professor Ronald Breslow's laboratory, Jason Choi of Sleepy Hollow High School in Sleepy Hollow, NY is working in Professor Philip Kim's laboratory, and Zulema Jones-Enoe of Juan Morel Campos I.S. 71 in Brooklyn is working in Professor Colin Nuckolls' laboratory. (more information)

2005 REU Program Kicks Off
NSEC's Research Experience for Undergraduates summer program has begun. Seven students from all over the country have come to Columbia to do research in NSEC laboratories. In addition to their research, the students have weekly seminars and other special events. It promises to be a successful and productive summer for these undergraduates.

Safety Training Program Begins
NSEC kicked off its safety program with a workshop on Friday, May 7, 2004. Representatives from Columbia's Environmental Health and Radiation Safety office presented trainings on general laboratory safety and hazardous waste management. NSEC plans to follow up with additional monthly safety training modules in the fall. (more information)

NSEC Attends Urban University Conference
NSEC participated in the 7th Annual Urban University Conference on Friday, April 23rd, 2004 at Lehman College of the City University of New York, organized by the New York City Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation in Science. The conference highlights research being done at CUNY and is a networking event for minority scientists and engineers, as well as a forum for students to gather information on internships, graduate programs, and employment. (more information)

Technology Commercialization Short Course
On Friday, April 23, 2004, NSEC presented a short course entitled "From Innovation to IPO: Strategies and Pitfalls in Commercializing New Technology" designed to help researchers better understand the basic issues they need to consider when taking a new idea from the lab bench to the marketplace. The course was taught by Peter Fiske, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of RAPT Industries, a technology start-up in Livermore, California. (more information)

Third Group of Students Trained in Presentation Skills
NSEC offered a third succesful workshop in presentation skills to six graduate students and postdocs on Wednesday April 21 and Thursday, April 22, 2004. The workshop was again taught by Bruce Strothenke, a Certified Ed. D. candidate in Instructional Technology and Media at Columbia University Teachers College. The students learned valuable skills for both making presentations and giving and receiving useful feedback. Following the success of these three workshops, NSEC plans to offer additional workshops in Spring 2005. (more information)

Big Excitement at Nano-Day
The Columbia Nanocenter and City College of New York in collaboration with Barnard College and Rowan University presented Nano-Day in New York, an outreach event designed to attract high school students into science and engineering fields. There were talks in the morning from a range of people including NSEC Scientific Director Horst Stormer and Bill Nye the Science Guy. Interactive displays, lab tours, an egg drop contest, and a "Nano Raffle" filled out the afternoon. Approximately 500 New York City high school students and their science teachers attended Nano-Day. (more information: 1, 2)

Louis Brus has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences for his work on semiconductor nanocrystals. He is the fourth member of the NSEC to be elected to the Academy. NSEC heartily congratulates Prof. Brus. (more information)

Stormer Speaks at Local School
NSEC Scientific Director Horst Stormer spoke about nanoscience to seventh and eighth grade students at the Mott Hall School in Manhattan on Thursday, March 18. He also met with the Mott Hall-CCNY STARS for a discussion of their projects in science and engineering research laboratories at The City College of New York. Stormer's visit was arranged through the NEC Extreme Science program as part of E.S.T.M.E. (Excellence in Science Technology and Math) Week 2004. Extreme Science is organized by Science Service. (more information)

Second Presentation Skills Workshop a Success
Following the success of the first one, NSEC presented a second Presentation Skills workshop for six students and postdocs on Wednesday, March 10 and Thursday, March 11. Once again, the workshop was presented by Bruce Strothenke, a Certified Ed. D. candidate in Instructional Technology and Media at Columbia University Teachers College. The workshop particpants gave each other feedback, including videotaping and playing back practice presentations. NSEC plans to offer a third workshop in April. (more information)

NSEC Co-Sponsors Talk on Non-Profit Research
With support from NSEC, the Columbia Chemistry Careers Committee (C4) presented a talk by Mark E. Van Dyke, Ph.D. on working at a non-profit research institute. Dr. Van Dyke spoke about his experiences working at Southwest Research Institute, the largest non-profit contract R&D organization in the world.

RET Teacher Makes the Papers
Thomas Byrne, a physics teacher at New Rochelle High School who was an NSEC-sponsored RET teacher in the summers of 2002 and 2003, was featured in a March 11, 2004 article in the New Rochelle Standard Star. The article was about the Science Olympiad Club, which competed in the New York State Science Olympiad Championship on March 12. Byrne is the club's advisor. (full story)

Kim Paper Highlighted
Philip Kim's paper "Thermopower measurement of individual single-walled carbon nanotubes", Microscale Thermopower Engineering 8, 1-5 (2004), was featured on the cover of the January-March 2004 issue of the journal. The premise of the work was that mesoscopic scale thermal transport measurements are necessary to elucidate the intrinsic thermal properties of carbon nanotubes. Much more attention has been paid to electron transport in nanotubes, and these studies have indicated interesting thermal transport phenomena worthy of further study.

Colin Nuckolls was awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship for 2004. These awards are intended to enhance the careers of the very best young faculty members in specified fields of science. Currently a total of 116 fellowships are awarded annually in seven fields: chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, and physics.

Zvi Galil, dean of the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, has been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest professional honors an engineer can attain. The NAE recognizes the nation's leaders in engineering for their contributions to the field and their dedication to improving quality of life through achievements in engineering and education. (more information)

Philip Kim has received a 2004 NSF CAREER Award for his proposal "Mesoscopic Thermal and Thermoelectric Transport in Low Dimensional Materials." The CAREER Program offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards for outstanding faculty early in their independent professional careers.

Arden House Retreat
The members of the NSEC gathered at the Arden House Conference Center in Harriman, NY for their annual retreat January 16-17, 2004. The researchers shared their work in presentations, panel discussions, and poster sessions, and the center directors discussed outreach and education efforts, future plans, and the overall goals for the center. It was an excellent opportunity for the NSEC members to come together to assess where they stand and where they are going, both individually and as a group. (more information)

Colin Nuckolls was awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER award for 2003. The CAREER program recognizes and supports the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century. He has also recently received the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR), James D. Watson Investigator Award, one of ten two-year grants to early career investigators at academic, public and not-for-profit private research institutions in New York State.

George Flynn was awarded the American Physical Society's Herbert P. Broida Prize for his work in vibrational energy transfer in polyatomic molecules and liquid-solid interfaces using scanning probe techniques. The Broida Prize is awarded to one individual in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the field of atomic and molecular spectroscopy or chemical physics. It was presented in an awards ceremony at the APS Annual Meeting in March 2003.

Andrew Levy became the NSEC Program Coordinator in January, 2003. He came to Columbia from MediaChannel.org, a nonprofit, public interest Web site dedicated to global media issues. Andrew also teaches writing in New York University's Paul McGhee/Liberal Arts Program.

Richard Harniman became the CEPSR Clean Room Supervisor in August, 2002. He came to Columbia from Champion International Corporation, now owned by International Paper. NSEC manages the Clean Room in conjunction with MRSEC and other organizations on campus. Eric Holihan, supervisor of the MRSEC Shared Facilities, also works with Dick in the Clean Room.

Columbia's New Nanocenter Built on Partnerships with IBM, Lucent
August 1, 2002, Small Times Correspondent Jack Mason reports on James Yardley guiding Columbia's Center for Electron Transport in Molecular Nanostructures with Ronald Breslow, a National Medal of Science winner and a pioneer in biomimetic chemistry, and Nobel winning physicist Horst Stormer, as scientific directors. A close research relationship with IBM and Lucent's Bell Labs, both less than an hour from the university, is integral to the Columbia NSEC. (full story)

The First US-Italy Workshop on Frontiers in Materials Research, Nanoscience and Nanotechnology was convened at the NSF headquarters in Washington DC, on 14-15 March 2002 to debate key issues in Italy-US cooperation in research of nanoscale systems. The Workshop was held in the framework of a concerted effort between the NSF and the Italian research institutions to identify important current and future areas for collaborative work to be carried out by US and Italian scientists that are actively engaged in research at frontiers of Materials Science, with emphasis on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. Click here for NSEC Downloads.

Colin Nuckolls was awarded The Beckman Young Investigator Award for 2002 for his work on "Nanoscale Energy Conversion, Electrical Conduction, and Hierarchical Assembly." The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation makes grants to non-profit research institutions to promote research in chemistry and the life sciences, broadly interpreted, and particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments, and materials that will open up new avenues of research in science. (more information)

Columbia Named a National Nanoscale Research Center
The National Science Foundation (NSF) on Sept. 19, 2001 announced awards for national nanoscale research centers at six major research universities, including Columbia. The NSF awarded Columbia $10.8 million for five years to support the work of 16 primary researchers in the Center for Electronic Transport in Molecular Nanostructures, led by Professors Ronald Breslow and Horst Stormer, the scientific directors, and Professor James Yardley, managing director. (more information)