This fall, DU started offering a new graduate program for students interested in studying Nanoscale Science and Engineering.
The program allows students to earn either a master of science or a doctorate in Nanoscale Science and Engineering.
It is a natural extension of the Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering, which was formed over two years ago to facilitate interdisciplinary research through collaboration between the School of Engineering and Computer Science and the Division of Natural Science and Mathematics, according to Maciej Kumosa, the director of the center.
“Research and education are inseparable,” said Davor Balzar, chair of the committee that proposed the new graduate program.
Kumosa and Balzar aim to attract both traditional students and those who already work in area businesses and want to further their education with an advanced degree.
Two students are already working toward their degrees, and the center has received several inquiries about the new program.
Because the program is so unique, Kumosa and Balzar expect that it will attract new students from outside the university instead of taking students away from other areas of study in the science and engineering departments.
Students enrolled in the program take courses from a variety of different departments including biological sciences, chemistry and biochemistry, physics and astronomy, mechanical and materials engineering, electrical and computer engineering and computer Science.
In addition, the mathematics department and the Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer were involved in the creation of the program.
Kumosa and Balzar hope to incorporate law and business classes into the program in the future.
The level of interdisciplinary collaboration makes the program unique; it is the first program of its kind in the Rocky Mountain region and one of only a handful throughout the nation.
“Research these days is very interdisciplinary. Very few programs like this exist in the country,” Kumosa said.
The program itself is the product of interdisciplinary collaboration, as evidenced by the wide range of departments involved.
Both Kumosa and Balzar stress the importance of “sharing credit and sharing experience” and explained that the support of the deans of both SECS and NSM, as well as the support of Provost and the Chancellor, was the key to getting the program off the ground.
For more information on the program, see www.nano.du.edu.
