Sallyport - The Magazine of Rice University - Winter 2002

Nano Meets H2O - Through the Sallyport
environment. This “wet/dry” interface is key to applications in medicine
and environmental engineering. Gold nanoshells injected into cancer cells,
for instance, currently are being tested as a cancer therapy. A likely
environmental application of nanomaterials is wastewater treatment—
nanostructured materials should make efficient filtration systems.
The center has attracted a breadth of expertise in all three of the areas under
its research umbrella. “Rice is proud to be the home of nearly 40 scientists
and engineers working in nanoscale teaching and research and the new
Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology,” Gillis says. In
addition to Colvin, Richard E. Smalley, the Gene and Norman Hackerman
Professor of Chemistry and professor of physics at Rice, will direct the
center’s long-range vision. Smalley was a joint recipient of the 1996 Nobel
Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of fullerenes. Mark Wiesner, professor
of civil and environmental engineering and director of Rice’s
Environmental and Energy Systems Institute, will lead the new center’s
environmental research arm, and Jennifer West, associate professor of
bioengineering and chemical engineering, will lead its biological
component.
In a three-pronged approach, educational and industrial outreach programs
will complement the center’s research activities. The educational
centerpiece is an initiative to train ninth-grade Houston Independent School
District teachers in the challenging discovery-based teaching style so
important to science education. The educa-tional programs also include
curriculum and textbook development and funds to support summer
undergraduate research.
The industrial component includes a partnership with the Jesse H. Jones
Graduate School of Management. This program will encourage the transfer
of center technology to start-up ventures by bringing together scientists,
students, and business experts interested in nanoscience applications.
—Margot Dimond
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