nanogurl

All my life I've been looking into the field of nanotechnology for a career. Since I'm on my freshman year in high school I just want to get some ideas of good colleges to go to. CAN ANYONE HELP ME?!?!? please.

marny1

Nanogurl- SUNY Albany has a very well respected -College of Nanoscale science and Engineering. I think SUNY Albany is the first college dedicated to nanotechnology education. The nano campus is separate from the Albany Quad campus. We checked out SUNY Albany for my own kid- though not the nano program.
As a New Yorker, just appreciate and be aware that there is a great nano program in our SUNY system. Check out their website, there is alot of good info.

modestmelody

Depends on what area of nanotech you're into. Realize that most places are using nanotech in some form or another-- hell, my lab group in chemistry has been doing it for years before it was known as nanotechnology. We were pretty happy to slap on a buzz word and get more money.

I'm not sure that it's fair to say there is one place great for nano and one place not-- truthfully, nanotech is not its own field (though it's becoming so a bit in engineering), but really just applying even disciplinary techniques to a particular scale.

Check out chemsitry and engineering departments primarily and find out what individual researchers are doing and find the place that is doing the nanotech you're into-- is it new composite materials to replace bones or micromachines? Fuel cell and solar technology or drug delivery?

collegehelp

Cornell has an active interdisciplinary nanotechnology program and has constructed a new building, Duffield Hall, to encourage interdisciplinary efforts in the area of nanotechnology.

Cornell NanoScale Science & Technology Facility
Cornell Engineering : Nanomaterials, Nanodevices, and Nanoscience
MSE: nanotechnology
nanotechnology
Center for Nanoscale Systems

This should give you a sample of the activity at Cornell.

RacinReaver

As collegehelp said for Cornell, most schools are taking a similar approach. Nanotechnology is becoming the new biomedical. Everything that's attached to immediately looks sexy to the public, so everyone that can latch on is.

If you're interested in the applications of nanotechnology, look into materials science & engineering, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering. If you're looking into the fundamentals of nano-sized things, look into all of the above plus physics and chemistry.

Just about everyone in science is doing nanotechnology, since often things can be reduced to some sort of nano length scale. For example, my lab is working on making a new kind of material. One of the goals is to find ways to be able to make larger chunks of it. This is measured on the mm scale. Then, we have to worry about the way it breaks. This is measured on the micrometer scale. Finally, we think there exists some sort of units within our material that are on the scale of 1nm-50nm. So, yeah, we're "doing nanotechnology," but that's just because we need to do that in order to deal with the real issues we care about at larger length scales.

marny1

probably mostly for economic development reasons- but NYS seems to be putting in a big push to develop nanotechnology in NYS. This may be true throughout the country- but I"m just aware of it in NY- and as Albany is capitol of NYS- no surprise, but it seems to be the hub of activity.
so just become familiar with academic programs in NYS including those at U of Albany- Cornell-RPI and check out this website--
NYLN: New York Loves Nanotech

The only reason I am somewhat aware of this is hubby is alum of SUNY Albany and there has been several articles about the nano center in the alumni magazine.

belevitt

There are other cross disciplinary nanotechnology programs springing up. I went to a seminar from James Baker who heads the one at the University of Michigan. From what I could tell, that seems like a fabulous place to study nanotechnology. Word of warning, climate is awful and unemployment is rampant.

mrego

Rice, Cal Tech, MIT

wobudong

Rice: Check out: Smalley Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology and
The Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology

Bala

Northwestern's International Institute for Nanotechnology is cutting the cutting edge.
International Institute for Nanotechnology
Institute for Nanotechnology

The institute is run by Chad Mirkin, one of the brightest stars in the field, who just won the 2009 Havinga Medal and the Essalen Award for Chemistry.
http://www.iinano.org/News/Mirkin%20Awards%202008.pdf

NU also leads the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center:
"Established by a grant from the National Science Foundation in 2001, the NU-NSEC represents researchers from Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Argonne National Laboratory and their collaborators from industry, academic institutions, and national laboratories in the common goal to create an accelerated pathway from conception to application to commercialization."
Welcome to the NU Nanoscale Science & Engineering Center

Just over a year ago, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart, former Chair in Nanosystems Sciences at the University of California at Los Angeles and director of the California NanoSystems Institute, was recruited along with 2 dozen other lab members from UCLA to join Mirkin. This recruitment coup solidified Northwestern's position as a pack leader in the field.
Stoddart Mechanostereochemistry Group

gthopeful

All your life? Gosh I feel old. I heard about nanotechnology sometime during undergrad or late hs. Anyway, nanotechnology is a blanket term and definitely a buzz term. Since you're not even to undergrad yet, I'd suggest thinking about what you'd like to major in rather than which school you'd like to go to. There are so many different paths to nanotech and there are so many universities that specialize in areas of nanoscale science.