Twelve Syracuse University graduate students will use a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation to research soft and biological materials.

The grant was given to advance the development of an Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training Program in Soft Interfaces, according to a Thursday SU news release. The program is used to educate doctorate-level scientists and engineers to reach across traditional fields of study, according to the release. The program has granted 215 awards to more than 100 universities in 41 states since 1998.

College campuses nationwide applied for the $3 million grant, said Patrick Mather, Milton and Ann Stevenson professor of biomedical and chemical engineering and co-principal investigator on the IGERT grant. SU was denied the grant a year ago, but reapplied after receiving feedback from foundation and revamping the project proposal that was required for the application process.

After drafting a pre-proposal, SU was invited by NSF to submit a more in-depth proposal, said Cristina Marchetti, the William R. Kenan Jr. professor of physics and principal investigator on the IGERT grant. She said her and her colleagues were ‘very excited’ after receiving news about the award a few weeks ago.

Marchetti said the research will examine the way in which cell membranes retain their shape and communicate with the environment. Research will focus specifically on how membranes generate and respond to forces.

Dacheng Ren, another co-principle investigator and biological medical and chemical engineering professor, said six graduate fellows will begin research in fall 2012. Six more graduate students will be awarded the fellowship the following year, making for 12 total graduate students.

Students interested in applying for the program will have an option to do so during the general admissions process, Marchetti said. An area on the admissions application will be designated for applicants to express interest in the program.

Two years of the fellows’ five-year graduate experience will be spent researching areas specific to the IGERT grant, Marchetti said. The remaining three years will be spent working on a related research project.

Three newly developed courses will also be added to SU’s curriculum as a result of the grant. The classes will eventually be opened to other students, Marchetti said.

SU’s program in Soft Interfaces is an effort between the College of Arts and Sciences and the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science, according to the release. The program draws on knowledge from professors in S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, according to the release.  

Marchetti said the project IGERT grant differs from most research projects in that a more interdisciplinary approach will be used, as expertise will span from four academic departments. Recipients of fellowships can be drawn from the physics, chemistry, biology or the biological medical and chemical engineering programs, Marchetti said.

Traditionally, Marchetti said collaboration among various academic departments occurs at the faculty level but less at the graduate level.

Marchetti said research in science is beginning to cross multiple disciplines nowadays.

Said Marchetti: ‘I think science today is going more and more in that way.’

dbtruong@syr.edu

Published on September 20, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Debbie: dbtruong@syr.edu | @debbietruong