a blog by the NSF Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology
Happy Nano Day, Everyone! Though you might be looking at me weird if you use the dd/mm dating system, tomorrow (10/9 in the U.S.) is the day to celebrate the scale that’s minuter than micro and more prodigious than pico. So what is Nano Day? Nano Day, or National Nanotechnology Day, is a celebration started …
Even if you didn’t watch the Olympics this summer, chances are you heard something about gymnast Simone Biles dropping out of the team and individual all-round competition. I won’t rehash any of the public discussion that occurred, but I am grateful that some athletes are starting the discussion about mental health. It is long overdue …
Continue reading "Anxiety can make graduate school feel like an Olympic balance beam"
How can creative output at the nexus of art and science help with the much-needed efforts to promote diversity in science? In this post, I'm excited to tell you about one initiative I've been involved with, and highlight the amazing artists who have contributed their work to the project. Dr. Jeanita Pritchett next to her …
Continue reading "Artivism in Chemistry"
Living in the 21st century, many of us are used to electronic gadgets that make our lives a little easier. I am still in awe that my smartphone can give me directions to anywhere in the world with just a press of a finger. Now, imagine the next technological advancement that could potentially replace our …
Continue reading "Why Honeybees Never Ask for Directions"
Back in 2016 you might have read about a computer called AlphaGo that beat some of the best Go players in the world (I even wrote a blog post about it). At the end of 2020, DeepMind (the same company that developed AlphaGo), made news again. This time, their latest version of an artificial intelligence …
Lee the nanoparticle (art by Elfy Chiang) This post was originally published on the Lifeology blog on March 25th, 2021. Here at Lifeology, we’ve recently been honored to collaborate with The NSF Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology (CSN)! Together we’ve now created two Lifeology “flashcard” courses about how nanotechnology can be applied responsibly to solve real-world problems like …
Last month, in honor of #BlackHistoryMonth, I highlighted notable Black STEMists on Twitter every week day for the month of February in collaboration with the @HaynesChemLab. Here's the thread I created to showcase some incredible Black STEMists. Dr. Kristala L. Jones Prather Dr. Prather worked at @Merck for several years before starting her academic research …
Continue reading "Black History Month Highlights"
Transcript & summary by Emma Bublitz Graduate school applications can be difficult to navigate under the best of circumstances. Each department, program, and institution often requires a different set of materials and has different, often unspoken, expectations for how students should navigate the system.1 However, for LGBTQ+ students there are additional challenges in the process. …
Continue reading "Applying to Graduate School: Advice for LGBTQ+ students from the community"
December 7-12, 2020 is #BlackinNano week! This week-long celebration is just one facet of the Black in Nanotechnology organization, co-founded by Olivia Geneus, a Physical Chemistry Ph.D. Candidate, and Jarriaun D. Streets M.S., a Senior Biological Scientist. Black in Nanotechnology aims to: Highlight Black scientists advancing the field of nanotechnologyBuild partnerships and networks to push innovative …
Continue reading "It’s #BlackinNano Week!"
As I write this, I first want to acknowledge the land the University of Minnesota is on. These are the original homelands of the Dakota and Ojibwe Nations. It is important for us to note and respect the Indigenous peoples who were forcibly removed from this land and those who are still connected to this land. But …
Sustainable Nano 