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‘nanoscale’

Alert system for failing nuclear plant pipes uses thin films and sound vibrations

Oct. 24, 2019—A failing pipe can be tough to spot. It may cause a puddle, produce another sign of damage, or simply burst before detection. A flooded kitchen or laundry room is messy and inconvenient, but the stakes are much, much higher in nuclear power plants – which on average contain many miles of pipeline. As concern...

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Rebuilding concrete – Sanchez to help lead $6.7 million Hong Kong research project

Aug. 15, 2018—A Vanderbilt civil engineering professor is a key investigator in a new international project to revolutionize production of concrete using seawater, sea sand and fiber-reinforced polymer composites. The Hong Kong Research Grants Council, which is equivalent to the U.S. National Science Foundation, has awarded a $6.7 million, five-year grant to a multi-university team of experts...

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NSF equipment grant expands nanoscale research capabilities

Oct. 24, 2017—An advanced tool to be housed at Vanderbilt Institute for Nanoscale Science and Engineering core facilities will allow researchers to deposit uniform, ultrathin films for microelectronics, energy conversion devices and biomaterials. A $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Major Instrumentation Program is acquiring an ALD – atomic layer deposition – system. Jason Valentine, associate...

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New faculty: Rizia Bardhan finds solutions at the nanoscale

Dec. 11, 2012—  Rizia Bardhan (Joe Howell/Vanderbilt) Rizia Bardhan has a large picture of Mahatma Gandhi in her office. “Gandhi has always been very special to me,” she said. “We share the same birthday. He exemplifies the power of perseverance.” Perseverance has carried the new assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering to Nashville from Kolkatta, India,...

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Cummings: Nanotechnologists take lessons from nature

May. 2, 2011—It’s common knowledge that the perfect is the enemy of the good, but in the nanoscale world, perfection can act as the enemy of the best. In the workaday world, engineers and scientists go to great lengths to make the devices we use as perfect as possible. When we flip on a light switch or...

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Cummings appointed principal scientist of Oak Ridge National Laboratory division

Jan. 22, 2007—A chemical engineering professor at Vanderbilt University will lead the science programs of an Oak Ridge National Laboratory center that is designing and developing next-generation nanoscale materials. As the principal scientist for the ORNL Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Peter T. Cummings will continue to serve as Vanderbilt University John R. Hall Professor of Chemical...

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