News

If you will be in Berlin for the SETAC meeting May 20-24, please join us in session EP04-Greener nanotechnology, an integrative approach to an emerging technology. The session will be Wednesday morning (May 23) from 8:10-10:20 in the Estrel Convention Center Hall C.  

The content of this session is intended to:

(i) set the stage for the opportunities and challenges in developing a green(er) nanotechnology,

(ii) examine what we are learning about the impacts of nanotechnology on organisms and how this information might drive greener design and

CSMC Researchers at OSU have discovered a way to make a low-cost material that might accomplish negative refraction of light and other radiation – a goal first theorized in 1861 by a giant of science, Scottish physicist James Maxwell, that has still eluded wide practical use.

Other materials can do this but they are based on costly, complex crystalline materials. A low-cost way that yields the same result will have extraordinary possibilities, experts say – ranging from a “super lens” to energy harvesting, machine vision or “stealth” coatings for seeming invisibility.

Doug Keszler, SNNI researcher and CSMC Director and colleagues discovered a promising alternative to thin film materials for potential solar cells, by examining the properties of "Fool's Gold", (iron pyrite). They found that iron pyrite is an excellent absorber of solar energy and can be made into extremely thin layers. Unfortunately, the substantial heat required to create solar cells causes the pyrite to decompose.

University of Oregon scientist and SNNI faculty, David C. Johnson  will take the minuscule world of nanotechnology on the road to Albany, Ore., Feb. 8, for an informal science pub that will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Calapooia Brewing Co., 140 Hill St. NE.

Small technology offers big reward

By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI

Capital Press

Tiny, highly specialized tools known as nanoparticles have the potential to transform agriculture and make current "precision ag" devices look like blunt implements in comparison.

Postdoctoral scholar positions are available in the Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry, a Phase-II Center for Chemical Innovation sponsored by the US National Science Foundation.  Scholars will contribute to advancing Center collaborative efforts in chemical synthesis, application of analytical techniques, and computational modeling.  The Center is a multi-institutional effort led by Oregon State University and the University of Oregon; positions are available across the participating institutions.  The Center also offe

Dr. Greg Rorrer, an SNNI researcher uses diatoms to harness solar energy was featured in the November 2011 issue of National Geographic's Vision, Now, Next series. 

One of SNNI's faculty members, Dr. Stacey Harper (Oregon State University) has received a five-year, $1.9 million award as an Outstanding New Environmental Scientist (ONES) from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).  This is a highly competitive and prestigious award given to only a few of the most promising new faculty investigators.

CORVALLIS and EUGENE, Ore.—(Sept. 8, 2011)—A collaborative Oregon State University-University of Oregon Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry, born under a National Science Foundation grant in 2008, is moving into a second phase under a new five-year, $20 million NSF grant.