News Story

NIST and NanoCenter Announce Partnership

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has made a $1.5 million competitively awarded grant to the Maryland NanoCenter towards a new cooperative program to further their efforts to develop measurement technologies and other new tools that support the creation of new nanotechnologies.

The new nanotechnology program is the latest of several collaborative efforts between the Clark School and NIST. Last year the two institutions created the UM-NIST Center for Nanomanufacturing and Metrology, a joint venture created to advance the science and technology of manufacturing products based on the unique properties achieved at the nanoscale (one billionth of a meter). Clark School engineers also have numerous partnerships with NIST researchers in a variety of areas, from nanomaterials fabrication to nanoscale characterization.

The bulk of the new grant will support the work of 13 research scientists and engineers in the NanoCenter and NIST's new Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology. Principal investigator for the new cooperative program is Ellen Williams, a Distinguished University of Maryland Professor in the department of physics and the Institute for Physical Science and Technology, and a researcher in the NanoCenter.

A portion of the grant will be used for national outreach and education efforts directed towards young faculty members and post-doctoral researchers. The grant also will accelerate the scale-up of NIST's Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, which was launched in March 2006.

The grant is renewable annually for up to five years.

For more information about this grant, please see the university’s press release.

July 11, 2006