Spring Break
$4 million nanotech grant from Beebe brings opportunities to area
Alex Lanis
Issue date: 1/28/08 Section: News
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"The world is watching these Arkansas scientists, and this research can lead to high-quality, knowledge-based jobs for Arkansans," Beebe said in the press release.
The grant, which came out of the state's General Improvement Fund, will be used to build state-of-the-art facilities and finance the very successful nanotechnology program and faculty that are at the university, said Donald Bobbitt, dean of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. Bobbitt is excited about the program and said that it will bring many jobs to Fayetteville and to UA graduates. Nanotech firms, he said, are hiring from all areas of the university.
"These guys are not just hiring from engineering, but they're hiring marketers, accountants and managers, too," he said.
Nanotechnology is essentially the study of the properties of very small amounts of matter, which behave differently than larger amounts, Bobbitt said.
"We have a real army of people working on this campus," Bobbitt said, "and an exceptional faculty." The UA has a large effect on the rest of the state, and nanotechnology can bring in well-paying jobs and revenue to Arkansas, he said.
Research in nanotechnology at the university has led to the founding of local companies, such as Nanomaterials and Nanofabrication Labs, which was created by Xiaogang Peng, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and NanoMech, founded by mechanical engineering professor Ajay Malshe, according to the press release.
Last year, Jacques Chakhalian, assistant professor of physics, developed a way to "look" at atomic orbitals in complex oxides. He and his colleagues demonstrated for the first time that atomic orbitals change dramatically when interacting with a ferromagnet and a high-temperature superconductor, according to the press release.
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