Archive for November, 2009

The Ohio State University Institute for Materials Research (IMR) announces its first IMR Industry Challenge Grant awarded to Dr. Dennis Bong, Assistant Professor of Chemistry. 

Dr. Bong will receive $20,000 in cost share from IMR to supplement his project Synthesis of amphiphilic core-shell latex emulsions from soy proteins and delivery of corrosion inhibitors and biocides for coatings application, an externally sponsored research project funded by an industry partner. 

The IMR Industry Challenge Grants program was created to help strengthen new collaborations in materials-allied research between OSU researchers and private industry partners, which will lead to major external proposal development. These grants provide one-to-one matching funds up to $20,000 per year to fund graduate students or postdoctoral researchers working on these collaborative research projects.

 Industry Challenge Grants have a rolling deadline – applications are accepted at any time.  Visit the IMR website for more information and the full Request for Proposals.

On October 29, Nanotech West Laboratory was honored to host a visit from a Chinese delegation representing Hubei Province, a sister-state to Ohio since 1979 and home of Wuhan University.  The delegation of 14 included Mr. Yang Song, Deputy Party Secretary of Hubei Provincial Committee and Mr. Wang Dunsheng, Deputy Director-General of Hubei Provincial Department of Agriculture.

Dr. John Carlin, Research Scientist and IMR Member of Technical Staff, provided the distinguished group with an overview of the photovoltaics research taking place at Ohio State and the broad research capabilities of OSU’s Nanotech West Laboratory. Dr. Carlin was joined by Dr. Yun Wu, a Postdoctoral Researcher at OSU’s NSEC program, who is originally from Hubei Province.

During their visit to Ohio, the Hubei group signed a memorandum of agreement with the Ohio Department of Agriculture pledging to continue a long-standing alliance between Ohio and Hubei Province in promoting and advancing their agriculture industries.

2009 Interdisciplinary Materials Research Grants (IMRGs) Awarded by the OSU Institute for Materials Research (IMR)

IMR’s Research Enhancement Program provides different funding mechanisms to support novel research at The Ohio State University. Five new research projects were awarded by the IMR in June 2009, for a total investment of $225,000. Three IMRG research projects also received a second year of funding from IMR for an additional $130,000 in direct research support from IMR.

2009 IMRG Research Projects: New Research

Metamaterials with Smart Reconfiguration for Broadband RF Antennas
Lead: Marcelo Dapino, Mechanical Engineering; Co-Applicants: Suresh Babu, Industrial Systems Engineering; John Volakis, Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Economical Platforms for FET-based Protein Detection to Support Sensor Clinical Translation
Lead: Stephen C. Lee, Biomedical Engineering; Co-Applicant: Paul Berger, Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Use of Electrospun Biomaterials as Carriers of Bone Marrow Derived Stem/Progenitor Cells to Stimulate
Lead: Nicanor I. Moldovan, Internal Medicine; Co-Applicant: John J. Lannuti, Materials Science and Engineering.

Exploring Electrically Tunable Magnetism in Gd-doped Nitride Quantum Structures
Lead: Roberto C. Myers; Materials Science and Engineering & Electrical Computer Engineering; Co-Applicants: Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, Physics; Michael Mills, Materials Science and Engineering.

Synthesis of III-V Semiconductor Nanowire Heterostructures Using Metalorganic Chemical Vapor
Lead: Fengyuan Yang, Physics; Co-Applicants: Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, Physics; Roberto C. Myers, Materials Science and Engineering & Electrical and Computer Engineering

2009 IMRG Renewals

IMR also provided $130,000 in direct funding to support the second year of these successful IMRG research projects:

Experimental and Computational Study of ALD-grown Dielectrics on III-Nitrides
Lead: Siddharth Rajan, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering; Co-Applicant: Wolfgang Windl, Materials Science and Engineering

IMRG Research Award to Supplement Center for Emergent Materials Program
Lead: Katherine Flores, Materials Science and Engineering

Solving the “Contact Problem” of Molecular Electronics via Atomic Layer Deposition
Lead: Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, Physics; Co-Applicants: Jonathan Pelz, Physics; Malcolm Chisholm, Chemistry