By Lacey Gray

NORMAN – The University of Oklahoma’s Center for Semiconductor Physics in Nanostructures is the recipient of a six-year, $7.8 million National Science Foundation grant.

The center, a research program headquartered in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Physics and Astronomy and directed by OU physics professor Matthew Johnson, is one of approximately 25 Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers across the nation, including ones at Harvard, Caltech, MIT, Princeton and Stanford.

“This National Science Foundation grant is evidence of OU’s leadership in nanotechnology,” said OU President David L. Boren. “Nanotechnology is recognized as one of the areas that will create the most economic growth in the nation over the next 25 years,” said Boren. “It is a real plus for Oklahoma that OU is building one of the top research programs in the nation in this field.”

Johnson works in conjunction with co-director Greg Salamo at the University of Arkansas and with OU’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the College of Engineering to conduct leading-edge research in semiconductor nanodevices, the next generation of components for the computing and biotech industries.

“Silicon has been the heart of the computing world for four decades,” said Johnson. “The new horizon promises even faster, smaller and cheaper devices by using nanotechnology.”

Salamo said, “Our researchers have authored and are at the forefront of the most compelling ideas in developing novel nanoferroelectric materials that will increase the limits of optical resolution, advance handheld wireless devices and provide inexpensive memory that is fast, flexible, scalable, low-power and non-volatile.”

The NSF grant is supported by matching funds from both OU and UA as well as the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education and the Arkansas state government, making the total funding close to $12 million.

“This large research award is a credit to the quality and hard work of our faculty, and will enable us to maintain our leadership position in this very exciting and challenging area,” said OU Vice President for Research T.H. Lee Williams.

University of Arkansas Chancellor John A. White said, “This isn’t just like going to a bowl game. This is like winning a national championship.”

The OU/UA grant renews funding for C-SPIN, which previously received an award in 2000. The award to OU/UA is one of approximately 15 new awards made in 2005.

The funding provides new research staff positions at each campus and extensive interdisciplinary research for graduate and undergraduate students. However, funding for C-SPIN goes beyond laboratory research and includes outreach to community high schools and grade schools, teachers and students, and national laboratories and businesses.

C-SPIN provides teaching kits to area schools and laboratories as well as a number of museums in Oklahoma, including the Jasmine Moran Children’s Museum and the Omniplex.

In a pilot program held this summer, two Tecumseh teachers worked with center researchers to create high school lesson plans and labs designed around crime scene investigation techniques.

“The kids think they are just having fun with C.S.I. activities,” chemistry teacher Renee Wooten said. “What they’re really doing is learning about critical observation and careful documentation, cornerstones of the scientific method.”

One of C-SPIN’s goals is to educate society on the understanding of scientific methods, experiments, logic and research and implications for future technological and medical developments.

The center’s research on nanotechnologies contributes to developments in many areas of society. In electronics, nanoparticles can be used in computers to make them faster and more efficient, with twice as much storage capacity and, therefore, less expensive for the average consumer. Research results are also being used in the medical industry for such things as targeting tumors with heat therapy, new ways to deliver drugs to patients via magnets and technological advancements for the hearing impaired. Still other uses of nanotechnologies are in sunscreens, lead-free paints and eyeglasses that include a built-in cell phone in the earpiece.

For more information, contact OU Physics and Astronomy professors Matthew Johnson at (405) 325-3961, Ext. 36129, or Johnson@physics.ou.edu, or Caroline Hall at (405) 325-3961, Ext. 36144, or caroline@physics.ou.edu.