Overview

Mission Statement

The Nanoscience department’s mission is to prepare students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds to conduct basic and advanced research in nanoscience in industrial, governmental, or academic settings. Within this context, the Nanoscience Department provides a graduate-level transdisciplinary educational and discovery research experience in nanosciences, sustainable nanosystems, innovation, and community-engaged outreach. It also works collaboratively with the Nanoengineering Department to achieve an integrated foundational research program in emerging high-impact areas.

Why Study Nanoscience?

Scientists in this transdisciplinary field seek to comprehend, gather and organize knowledge of the nanoscale universe through careful observations and creative, visionary thinking. Nanoscience sits at the intersection of mathematics and the core fundamental sciences: physics, biology, and chemistry, as well as their derivatives, such as material science, pharmacology, neurochemistry, and ecology. Nanoscientists explore the unique and emergent properties that arise in materials and processes in nanoscale-sized regimes from this vantage point.

Nanoscientists manipulate materials at multiple levels, including atomic, molecular, and macromolecular scales, to control their organization, determine how nanoscale materials function, how nanoscale processes impact complex systems, and how nanoscale materials and processes may be applied to real-world macroscopic problems in fields such as energy, medicine, and electronics. Nanoscience is a new way of thinking about old things.