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Maryland NanoCenter Emerging Leaders Program
Rationale
The immediate goals of the Maryland NanoCenter are to push the frontiers of scientific research and to realize the promise of nano science and technology in applications which advance healthcare, energy, environment, security, and technology products for consumers and a competitive economy. But to sustain and grow these contributions requires equal commitment to developing young researchers who will become leaders in pushing the boundaries of knowledge, technology, and innovation to benefit society, our citizens, and stakeholders across technology sectors.
Synopsis
We have therefore launched the NanoCenter’s Emerging Leaders Program, aimed at directly supporting the development of the next generation of researchers, technologists, innovators and entrepreneurs in nano. As the Program evolves, we envision it to include opportunities across the educational spectrum - from undergraduates and graduate students to postdoctoral fellows and young faculty researchers from academia, government and industry. Each component of the Program will bring together a group of young researchers who will (1) join and advance cutting-edge research, (2) broaden their perspective through regular and coordinated exposure and interaction with other research themes and teams, and (3) clarify their career ambitions and strategies to pursue them through discussions with accomplished senior researchers from different backgrounds.
Ellen Williams Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowships in Time-Domain Nanoscience
As a first component of the Emerging Leaders Program, we have established a group of 9 Postdoctoral Fellowships in Time-Domain Nanoscience. These awards are supported jointly by a grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the NanoCenter’s three primary Colleges (A. James Clark School of Engineering;College of Computer, Math and Physical Sciences; and College of Chemical and Life Sciences). They offer outstanding postdoctoral candidates an opportunity to advance nanoscience as it relates to temporal aspects, from dynamics of energy exchange and chemical transformations in biology to ultrafast phenomena in nanoscale devices.
In focusing on the time domain, this work will expand nano research beyond its conventional focus on spatial dimensions (“the nano scale”). Click here to see details of the program.
This component recognizes the key role that Professor Ellen Williams has played both in the research world of nanoscale science and in establishing a pre-eminent position for the University of Maryland in this world. After leading the University to this stature during her time at Maryland from 1982 to 2009, Professor Williams became Chief Scientist at British Petroleum (BP). For more background on Professor Williams, click here.
Join us in nurturing the nanotechnology leaders of the future
There are several ways you can play a significant role in making it happen. Here’s how.
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For potential donors:
Support and help define new components of the Emerging Leaders Program
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Whether you are a private donor, Foundation, or company, you can work with the NanoCenter Director and staff to:
- Establish undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships, and post-doctoral fellowships
- Fund your scholarships and fellowships independently or in partnership with other individuals or organizations
- Associate your support with specific research programs, technical areas, or faculty groups
- Help define the scope and conditions for the recipients’ work
- Collaborate with the scholarship or fellowship recipients in their work
- Keep up to date on progress of the research through regular on-site interaction with recipients and feedback concerning the progress of their work
- Create named Professorships or funds of various kinds for junior faculty, helping them catapult their careers into prominence
- Created named, chaired Professorships with stipulations for how funds will be used to support emerging leaders
The NanoCenter seeks collegial and mutually beneficial relationships with all participants, leading to the success of the recipients, the satisfaction of funders and progress in our research projects.
To learn more about supporting the Emerging Leaders Program, please contact Leslie Borak, Assistant Dean for External Relations, at 301-405-0317 or lborak@umd.edu.
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For faculty and other mentors:
Encourage your students and postdocs to seek out opportunities in the Emerging Leaders Program
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You know well the importance of following a career path which elevates research experience and opportunity while broadening exposure and perspective beyond where your people have already worked. The programmatic structure for each component of the Emerging Leaders Program assures benefits for them beyond cutting-edge research: coordinated interactions across research themes and activities to help clarify career ambitions and strategies. And while the primary benefit is to your student or postdoc, you will know that her next step after your influence is a good one, and that her success will reflect well on your institution and you.
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For student and postdoc candidates:
Keep track of current opportunities here, and review the Maryland NanoCenter website to learn about our exciting research
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Whether you are at an early or later stage of planning your career path, you know how important this is. The formalized components of the NanoCenter’s Emerging Leaders Program offer special benefits, not only in forefront research, but also in broadened exposure and perspective across disciplines and in career guidance. Each such component we launch will be explicitly announced and described, as exemplified in the Ellen Williams Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowships in Time-Domain Nanoscience.
Where no appropriate component is currently available:
Versions of these benefits are experienced by NanoCenter students and postdocs anyway. Besides working on exciting forefront research, they often work in teams with people from other faculty research groups, and thus learning about disciplines and methods of real value to their career path. Furthermore, such teams typically allow the student or postdoc to discuss and prepare a career path with the help of several collaborating faculty members. Overall, the nano community at Maryland is an exceptionally welcoming and collaborative environment – just ask our current students and postdocs.
To investigate opportunities for positions in nano research groups, look over the NanoCenter faculty page and the research group websites to which they lead, then contact the faculty member directly. To explore student admission options, check the websites of the relevant departments for admissions, curriculum, degree requirements, and other things. It should be emphasized that admission to the university for students at any level is through the various departments, not through the NanoCenter or other Centers.
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For junior faculty candidates
Recognize the supportive and collegial nano research environment for junior faculty at Maryland
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As you seek the path on which to launch your academic career, you probably recognize that support from the university is crucial, not only in start-up packages and conditions, but in research collaborations, shared facilities, collegiality and mentoring. These benefits are abundant to our new faculty: competitive salaries, benefits, and startup packages; a highly collegial environment and multi-mode mentoring; exceptional shared facilities in our NanoCenter and in numerous other shared research labs; easy access to Federal laboratories and funding agencies.
We hope to add formalized components of the NanoCenter’s Emerging Leaders Program that are specific to junior faculty. In the meantime junior faculty candidates should note that the nano community at Maryland makes special efforts to assist and encourage its young faculty.
Indeed, the Ellen Williams Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowships in Time-Domain Nanoscience, was explicitly targeted to young faculty: the 9 such funding packages were awarded to 7 assistant professors and 2 associate professors. Young faculty have also benefited from a host of research seed grants from the NSF MRSEC, the University System of Maryland Nano-Bio Initiative, and faculty sensitivity to include junior faculty in major multi-investigator proposals.
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Joining the nano community at Maryland
Preview what makes Maryland a great place for nano research
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