Chakraborty receives NSF nanoscience grant

charaborty med

Dr. Himadri Chakraborty

Dr. Himadri Chakraborty, assistant professor of chemistry and physics, has received a $40,000 grant for nanoscience research from the National Science Foundation. Contingent on the availability of funds, NSF expects to continue the grant through fiscal 2010, which would bring the total award to $120,000

The research project underwritten by the grant is titled "Subshell Differential Photoionization Studies of Single- and Multi-Walled Fullerene Endohedrals."

Chakraborty said his work will involve the study of nanoparticles through computer calculations, modeling and simulations. The term nanoparticle is generally used to refer to a very small particle with a size in all three dimensions of less than 100 nanometers.

A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, or about the length a fingernail grows in one second. Another comparison is to a human hair, which is between 50,000 and 100,000 nanometers in diameter.

The tiny structures Chakraborty will be studying have a number of emerging applications in medicine and nanotechnology, such as the more efficient and effective delivery of drugs to diseased cells. Endohedrals may also someday be used to build ultra-compact supercomputers small enough to fit inside someone's pocket.

Chakraborty said he will use the NSF funds to purchase a new mainframe computer and to hire student research assistants. The grant will also pay for a limited amount of domestic and international travel.

The opportunity to do more research enhances the classroom experiences he is able to provide for his students, Chakraborty said.

"It's one thing just to explain something from a textbook," he said. "It's something else to walk in and say, 'Now here's something we've just found that's really interesting."

For more information, please contact:

Anthony Brown,
News Bureau Fax: 660.562.1900

Northwest Missouri State University
219 Administration Building,
800 University Drive
Maryville, MO 64468

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