UMBC has joined the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology (CSN) as a primary collaborator on groundbreaking research exploring how modern nanomaterials interact with the environment and living organisms. The center seeks to “use fundamental chemistry to enable the development of nanotechnology in a sustainable manner, for societal benefit.”

Supported through $20 million in National Science Foundation (NSF) funding over the next five years and based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the CSN includes 13 innovative faculty from research institutions across the United States. Zeev Rosenzweig, professor and chair of chemistry and biochemistry, is leading UMBC’s participation in the center.

Nanotechnology involves the use of materials at the smallest scale, including the manipulation of individual atoms and molecules. Products that use nanoscale materials range from beer bottles and car wax to solar cells and electric and hybrid car batteries. If you read books on a Kindle, quantum dots, a semiconducting material manufactured at the nanoscale, underpin the high-resolution screen.

There are hundreds of products that use nanomaterials in various ways, but there are still many concerning unknowns when it comes to how tiny particles interact with biological systems.

 

“This research center will greatly impact society by preparing next generation nanomaterials that retain high function, while being safer for human health and the environment,” Rosenzweig explains. 

UMBC participation in the CSN will also provide UMBC graduate and undergraduate students with invaluable opportunities to collaborate with world leaders in the field, and to make significant scientific contributions of great social importance to the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology. In addition to UMBC and UW-Madison, participating institutions include Johns Hopkins University, UW-Milwaukee, the University of Minnesota, the University of Illinois, Northwestern University, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Tuskegee University, the University of Iowa, Augsburg College, and Georgia Tech.

CSN funding is provided by the NSF Division of Chemistry through the Centers for Chemical Innovation Program (CHE-1240151).

Contact: Dinah Winnick, Director of Communications, UMBC, dwinnick@umbc.edu, 410-455-8117