CSULB leading the way in nanotechnology research

By Katie Plourd
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer

A grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will provide funding to a course development program in nanotechnology at Cal State Long Beach.

Last May, the NSF granted an award of $100,000 to a team of colleagues at CSULB in order to develop courses in nanotechnology.

The NSF funds academic work in the areas of science and engineering according to Tulin Mangir, CSULB professor of electrical engineering.

According to Mangir, who is the primary investigator in the project titled "NUE: A tour in Nano-Land and understanding the Nano-Landscape: Developing Multidisciplinary NUE courses," along with Chuhee Kwon, associate professor of physics at CSULB and Andrew Mason, professor of biological sciences have received a $100,000 grant to develop a number of upper and lower division classes in nanotechnology at CSULB.

Nanotechnology is an emerging science according to Mangir. It involves the science of objects that range from a few nanometers to less than one hundred nanometers. A single human hair is about one billion nanometers, Mangir said.

According to Mangir, nanotechnology has a plethora of opportunities for students looking to succeed in the science industry. The fields of physics and engineering involve studying how electrons and photons act in nano-scale structures.

Biochemistry and biology fields show interest of nanostructures as parts of cells such as, subparts of cells to DNA and viruses. These technologies can help do things such as design new drugs, which would target specific diseases, Mangir said.

"It has tremendous implications," Mangir said.

Kwon says she agrees along with the NSF with their funding of the development of the program.

"Everybody thinks that's where the future is," Kwon said. "They want students to know about it."

These courses are usually only taught in the higher levels of education at universities such as Cal Tech, University of California Los Angeles, University of California Irvine and University of California Riverside. Until now nanotechnology has only been taught at the graduate and Ph. D. levels.

CSULB will be one of the first schools in this area to incorporate an undergraduate program.