Updated June 12, 2006
By Shobana Daniell
Twenty-five scientists from academia and industry gave workshops, lectures and laboratory demonstrations during the first summer school on Optical, Photonic and Electronic Materials last week at UCF.
UCF, one of four winners of grants to hold the program, hosted 31 students from universities nationwide, including MIT, Clemson University and the University of South Florida. The program covered “cutting edge research in materials that are used in a number of emerging technologies.”
Included in the 12-hour days packed with seminars and tutorials was a trip to UCF’s Florida Solar Energy Center. Most late evening ‘frontiers discussions’ after dinner focused on discussions on different aspects of scientific research, including practical advice on career management and commercializing research.
The intent of the course is to bring a multidisciplinary approach to an increasingly complex study of chemistry and other sciences. The program’s focus was to expose chemical scientists at early stages of their careers to the cutting edge research in materials that are used in a number of emerging technologies such as photonic polymers, nanophotonics and nonlinear optical materials.
The program was primarily funded by a grant from The Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society. UCF’s College of Sciences, Chemistry Department, Office of Research and Commercialization and the Thomson Corp. also provided support.
Students described the experience as positive and worthwhile. Participants brought different sets of skills and specialties to the summer program; and with the informal atmosphere and plenty of interaction, the group members forged friendships, with some even thinking of future collaborative work.
“The program is a major success for UCF,” said lead organizer Kevin D. Belfield, chairman of the Chemistry Department. “It has gained immense national visibility for its programs in optics, photonics and chemistry.”
Belfield said the program will help UCF to become a nationally recognized leader in research in those areas of science.
By combining subjects that aren't taught in the typical syllabi, the summer course is designed to move the participants into new areas of research. Amit Palkar, who is specializing in Fullerene Chemistry at Clemson University, said “on a lab tour this morning I was amazed at the scope of quantum dots…being researched by Dr. Deppe."
Deppe, of UCF’s Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers, also presented a tutorial on Semiconductor Quantum Dot Lasers and Nanophotonic Light Sources.
Professor Lee Chow, of the UCF Department of Physics, gave a seminar on Carbon Nanotubes and illustrated how that fusion of specialties can improve people’s daily lives. He said one of the reason computers can now operate at amazing speeds is because of the techniques used to make the technology smaller. Combining research in physics, electrical engineering and chemistry made that happen.
Such interfaces in the different branches of science are making an amazing impact on technological and medical innovations. Research underway in Belfield’s lab is on photomedicine, a process where medication is activated by light.
A person with a cancerous tumor could be injected with the chemotherapy drugs. With infrared light, the drugs could be turned on to selectively destroy the cancerous growth. This multidisciplinary research requires combining chemistry with lasers and biomolecular sciences.
Camila Garces, a graduate student in polymer science at University of Akron, was excited at the possibility of such interdisciplinary efforts. She said she would “use this new information to try to synthesize new materials with specific properties.”
On Friday evening, Peter Rentzepis, a chemistry professor at the University of California at Irvine who founded a company that manufactures high-capacity, fast-rate data storage systems, fielded questions from the participants and provided insight into new research opportunities in photonics.
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