Nanoscience and Nanoengineering Department

Contact Information

Dr. Steve Smith
Nanoscience and Nanoengineering
Phone: 605 394 5268
Fax: 605 394 2365
Email: Steve.Smith@sdsmt.edu
Web: http://nano.sdsmt.edu/

Faculty

Dedicated Nano faculty: Professor Smith (program director), Associate Professors Ahrenkiel and Yang, Assistant Professors Anderson, Liu, and Wood.

Participating faculty: Professors Salem (MET, CBE), and Fong (CABS), Associate Professor Zhu (CABS), Research Faculty Hong (MET).

Nanoscience and Nanoengineering

The Nano SE Ph.D. program offers a research-intensive degree focused on nanoscience and nanotechnology, with an emphasis on nano-scale materials, nano-metrology, and nano-biotechnology. A multi-disciplinary core curriculum is taken by students from diverse science and engineering backgrounds. These “core” courses are intended to introduce students to contemporary topics in nanoscience and nanotechnology, and to initiate a cross-disciplinary approach to research and learning. These courses can usually be completed in one, or at most two years. In addition to this core, students entering with an M.S. degree are required to take at least two electives outside the student’s traditional area of training. Students entering at the B.S. level will be expected to pursue, or take coursework equivalent to, an M.S. degree, in addition to the nano core curriculum.

Students from traditional science and engineering backgrounds enter the program with well-defined research interests and affiliate themselves with a research group and a faculty mentor. Nano program participants draw from the Departments of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, Physics, Chemistry, Chemical, Electrical, Materials and Metallurgical Engineering. Students with traditional training in these areas participate in cross-disciplinary research with a nano focus. Three major focus areas of the program are Electronic-Photonic Materials, Nano-Bio Imaging, and Nano-composites. Examples of research projects are: synthesis and characterization of nanocomposite materials, photo-activated nano-inks for direct write applications, nano-energetic materials, polymer chemistry, theory of spintronic devices, and structural and optical characterization of nano-materials for solar energy, bio-fuels and other forms of renewable energy, structural and optical characterization of nano-materials for solar energy, bio-fuels and other forms of renewable energy, superresolution optical imaging methods and nonlinear optics applied to the imaging of nano-scale bio-materials and systems.

The current research interest of the faculty can be found on the departmental website at http://nano.sdsmt.edu/.