Executive Summary Vision - WVNano - West Virginia University
Description
building a partnership with scientists at West Virginia State University (WVSU). ... of early career faculty and hires of postdoctoral associates at WVU and mid-career ..... For research professors and post docs, we have adapted to this challenge by .... Through the efforts of Co-PI Dr. Curt Peterson, VPR at WVU, targeted hiring ...
Informations
| Publié par | paul.vallen |
| Nombre de lectures | 35 |
| Langue | English |
| Poids de l'ouvrage | 1 Mo |
Extrait
A. Executive Summary Vision Our RII program,Next Generation Biometrics, is aligned with West Virginia's continuing priority of strengthening academic and economic capacity in biometrics. Research strengths in physiological biometrics, developed through prior NSF and state investments, provided the foundation for researchers at WVU and MU to extend biometrics from thephysiologicalto themolecularduring this RII and for building a partnership with scientists at West Virginia State University (WVSU). Keeping WV at the leading edge in biometrics requires that we achieve research leadership in system applications in molecular biometrics to match that which we achieved in physiological biometrics. Our strategy for achieving strength in molecular biometrics recognizes that molecular recognition applications in security and health offer a comparatively less complex framework in which to develop our research foundation than human recognition based on DNA or other molecular signatures. Integrated biosensor systems for rapid direct detection of a broad spectrum of biomolecular targets are needed for realization of effective protection, response, and diagnostic scenarios related to a range of threats, natural and otherwise, from sophisticated biowarfare agents to simple biocontamination of food and water supplies to biomarkers for disease. Therefore, ourRII research objectivehas been to advance viable integrated molecular recognition devices through the test bed exploration of novel co-integrated molecular recognition and transportfunctional building blocksfor these devices. Our selected test bed devices have been inspired over the project period by an evolving set of security, health, environment and energy applications. Our strategy to achieve this objective has four basic elements. 1. Organize our research plan, teams, and group collaboration dynamics around the functional building blocks with which to construct integrated molecular recognition test bed devices. 2. Build and bridge these crosscutting faculty teams through strategic cluster hires and development of early career faculty and hires of postdoctoral associates at WVU and mid-career faculty and post-docs at MU. Hiring targets identified voids in research expertise and address barriers to the pursuit of current and envisioned device-inspired research. 3. Build strategic collaborative relationships with academic and industry partners which help bridge our capability voids, complement our strengths and accelerate targeted research. 4. Enhance, institutionalize, and continually improve the shared facility and academic environments necessary to promote discovery and learning activities of these groups, and the institutional initiatives and culture changes that these groups activities have precipitated. Efforts Research Efforts are summarized relative to our RII objectives. Group-Building Effortsand infrastructure building activities are organized and reported at the: Research Functional Building Block Group (FBBG) level. Each detailed FBBG report captures activities, findings and output from both the interdisciplinary research in the FBBG as well as from core groups upon which the interdisciplinary work is based. Overall performance during the term of this project indicates the research effort has achieved its objective of linking core expertise in the pursuit of application inspired device test beds for molecular detection. Linkages continue to grow between recognition/transduction and transport FBBGs. This linkage is not automatic, but comes as a result of the pursuit of devices that necessitate the seamless combination of these technologies and their underlying science and engineering. This building and bridging of core group activities was a major outcome sought from this award.
Strategic Hiring: Ten key technical areas were identified between MU (one) and WVU (nine) where faculty expertise was needed to grow the foundation needed for FBBG work. Seven hires have been made in the areas of Nanobioscience (MU), Nanophotonic and Optoelectronic devices and fabrication (WVU), Nano-electro-mechanical Systems (WVU), Nanostructure and Material Characterization (WVU), Biophotonic and Ultrafast Phenomena and Characterization (WVU),Ab initiomodeling (WVU), and Molecular Recognition/Structural Biology (WVU). The interdisciplinary search process at WVU is now in place due to this RII and is adaptive. The process draws on successful aspects of prior years and a continued emphasis on targeting underrepresented candidates to fill positions. Resources and processes are now in place to deal with career couples and potential partner hires based on our recent experience with targeted hiring of female candidates. Our last search cycle yielded three excellent female candidates, one of which we successfully hired in part because the two remaining candidates had spousal careers we were unable to accommodate. The WVU Provost has since made a commitment to accommodate partners of candidates with a companion position. Collaborative Relationships: External collaborations have developed between FBBG efforts and the U.S. Department of Energys National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), the Centers for Disease Controls NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) facility, the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center at WVU, and local biotech companies in Morgantown (Protea Biosciences LLC) and Huntington (Vandalia Research Inc.). These collaborations span the application areas of health and energy, and their value is evidenced by resulting proposal development, activity co-funding and intellectual property (IP) actions. Regionally, increased research and professional interaction has been developed with the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University through interdisciplinary awards. Our faculty members also collaborate nationally through funded projects with companies in the semiconductor materials and devices sectors; with NIOSH and the University of Montana in the environmental impact of titanium dioxide, with the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Jackson State University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the development of preconcentrator technology to enhance current chemical explosive detection capabilities. Internationally, we have established a cooperative agreement and research contract with IC Innova USA/Japan for the mutual research and development of wide bandgap semiconductor devices and nanophotonics for solid state lighting. Our faculty have cultivated a relationship with Jilin University in China with a series of reciprocal conferences now established featuring visiting faculty from each campus. Shared Facilities:Before this RII, no organized shared facilities existed in WV supporting NSE. Now, a plan for support of shared resources was developed in coordination with the WVNano Deans Advisory Group, the WVU Research Office and WVEPSCoR officials representing the State of West Virginia. The final plan, by its fifth year, will establish a shared commitment on the part of users (40%), WVU (40%) and the State (20%) to support this set of shared resources. An internal university agreement distributing the commitment among colleges was executed by all parties. The plan was fully implemented in the spring 2007 semester. As the RII grant comes to a conclusion, the system has been an unqualified success with solid usage and support. Research and infrastructure improvements are supported by the management structure and activities in outreach, communication and evaluation. The RII management team is composed of the PI and Co-PIs and Campus Coordinators. The Technical Co-PI (Hornak) leads the research team which also has a management structure composed of FBBG leaders this team approach guides the research and research expenditures. The WVEPSCoR Council provides oversight for the RII and other state-funded programs. Outreach and communication are important in building public support for the WV research enterprise, and activities in this area focus on the general public and public leaders. Evaluation is accomplished through an External Technical Advisory Board and with a professional evaluator. Assessment through these means has provided the RII management team with valuable information to steer the project.
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Key Accomplishments Intellectual Merit The key accomplishments of our four functional building block groups (FBBGs) are summarized below. TheElectronic Transduction FBBGthe ability to obtain electronic signals fromfocuses on nanostructures. FBBG activities have focused on three areas: enzyme immobilization on functionalized surfaces, microcantilever sensor transduction, electronic properties of single biomolecules, and fabrication of novel electronic multifunctional materials that in the future could be integrated with biomolecular sensing elements. We have been especially interested in proteins whose function relies on redox reactions (CYP450, myoglobin) and cancer markers (VEGF). We have successfully measured and analyzed myoglobin single electron transistors, demonstrated Fab' antibody fragment binding on gold for cantilever sensor applications, shown self-assembled growth of YMnO3 nanoprisms on GaN and measured their individual ferroelectric properties, demonstrated increased metabolism of nanosurface-bound enzymes, and proven the feasibility of DNA-based organized nanostructures. TheNano and Microfluidics FBBGfocuses on exploration of mass transport through nanoscale channels and development of microfluidic systems for sample delivery to nanoscale transducer elements. Inter-FBBG activities include delivery and transport for evanescent wave and photonic crystal sensors (photonics FBBG), fluidic modeling and computation for molecular motors (nanokinematics FBBG), and planning for cantilever integration into microfluidics (electronics FBBG). Within the FBBG, the focus of the group has been to develop new advances in transport and delivery so that the group can provide cutting-edge innovations for other FBBG projects. These include advancement of the design and understanding of nanofluidic-microfluidic interfaces (NMIs), the first demonstration of a traveling wave electrophoresis device for nondispersive microfluidic separation, and development of smart phospholipid materials to serve as on-board valving fluids in microfluidic devices. TheNanokinematics FBBGfocuses on exploration of kinematics at the nano scale. That includes molecular motion and transport approaches used as building blocks for integrated Lab-on-Chip or sensor systems. The group focuses on all molecular transport, characterization, and sensor transducer and actuator functions that are electromechanically controlled in nature. A major focus has been the actin-myosin biomotor system. We isolated and purified actin and myosin from rabbit muscle and have begun to derive "design rules" which govern myosin-mediated actin bundle motility, photoreactively patterned myosin, and achieved actin bead attachment and dielectrophoretic drive of the actin-bead cargo. ThePhotonicFBBGfocuses on exploration of photonic molecular recognition approaches used as building blocks for integrated sensor systems. The work in this FBBG has established a portable evanescent wave transducer device capable of nano to picogram per mm Limit of Detection (LOD), two dimensional and one dimensional photonic crystal device designs capable of enhancing optical emission from tagged biomolecules by a factor of from 20 to up to 1000, a nanosensor based on a DNA hybridization driven quantum dot gold nanoparticle optical assay for detection of toxic metal ions in water, and integrated wide bandgap sources and detectors for molecular detection, including a Raman system for natural gas constituent gas detection. Broader Impact The crosscutting research developed within and between functional building block groups has built strong collaborations between groups in engineering, physical sciences and health sciences. The resulting research has resulted in significant publications and development of intellectual property, including generation of SBIR proposals. FBBG research has advanced the fields of biophotonic detection and wide bandgap sources and detectors. Research across FBBGs has advanced the fields of separations and microfluidics and will impact fields that require portable analyses and isolation of biomolecules. The broader understanding gained through this work will lay the foundation for biosensing, autonomous
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transport and actuation systems, whether biological or synthetic in nature at the nano-scale with significant impact in security, health, environment and energy applications. The interdisciplinary research of the FBBGs has created a rich training environment. Postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate students work collaboratively across interdisciplinary boundaries in the STEM disciplines, and are achieving depth of training in their core STEM discipline. The research involves multiple SURE and REU first generation college and UREP students and has provided a recruiting ground to increase both quality and diversity of graduate students in our graduate programs. Response to recommendations Overall, the Reverse Site report was very positive. West Virginia has made excellent progress in their RII award particularly in the areas of improving the academic culture, improving the research infrastructure, and integrating graduate research and education, according to the reports summary. Scientific merit, management, and focus of the program are identified as particularly noteworthy. Recognizing that the program seems well set to become sustainable, NSF suggested that we are afforded the opportunity to increase work on diversity, recruitment and (cyberinfrastructure) linkages with other institutions during the second half of the program. Specific recommendations and FY2008 actions are either below or in the Detailed Report that follows. 1) The universities should complete the hiring plan as soon as possible in order to have the people in place and their projects started before the RII grant expires. WVU is continuing an aggressive hiring strategy to fill the open positions. 2) WVU should consider implementing a policy or strategy for capitalizing on the opportunities afforded by dual-career partners and to look to professional societies for access to women and underrepresented minority faculty candidates. New programs for dual career couples and a targeted hiring process is helping WVU fill the remaining positions. 3) Reexamine the funding milestones and goals based on the expanded faculty cohort, normalizing the metrics on a per capita basis. Outcome and outputs have always been normalized on a per capita basis in our annual evaluation reports but the presentation to the Reverse Site team did not include normalized data by cohort. We are now analyzing project outputs by cohorts 4) Determine a more aggressive goal for number of grants is suggested. Our goal from Vision 2015, the states strategic plan for science and technology is to double competitive funding from federal agencies every 5 years. 5) for and benefit from improving the CyberinfrastructureThere appears to be much need connecting the three RII universities and the other public and private colleges and universities in the state.
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Our Track 2 award includes funding for connecting the RII universities. In addition, the recent grant to MU from the FCC provides Internet 2 capabilities and connection to institutions in the southern part of the state. West Virginia is working to improve connection to other colleges and universities in the state, but it will take time and additional funding, through our next RII Track 1 proposal and perhaps through ARRA funding. 6) Engage WVSU more fully to expand the recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities into STEM fields. WVEPSCoR and the Division of Science and Research has funded a Summer Undergraduate Research Experience program at WVSU this coming summer. In addition, RII scientists visit WVSU on an annual basis to give seminars and interact with WVSU faculty and students. The WVSU summer Math Institute is continuing to provide concentrated instruction to help keep underrepresented students in STEM majors. 7) We encourage the project to pursue other avenues to increase graduate student support and recruitment, such as IGERT and GK-12 awards. Faculty at WVU have continued to submit pre-proposals to the IGERT program. During the most current competition, four faculty groups submitted pre-proposals. WVU has recently hired a science educator in Biology and we expect her to submit a proposal to the GK-12 program. Responses to Recommendations from other advisory groups: WVEPSCoR has increased diversity by adding a female to the External Technical Advisory Board (ETAB), adding two females to the WVEPSCoR Advisory Council and WVU is focused on diversity for its remaining faculty hires. The primary recommendation from the ETAB concerned hiring. They recommended that the management team obtain a renewed commitment from the WVU president to hiring the final proposed faculty as soon as possible. New programs for dual career couples and a targeted hiring process are helping WVU fill the remaining positions. Additional details on these actions are in the Detailed Report below. B. Detailed Report 1.RII participants and participating institutions.RII participant data have been entered into FastLane and the Faculty Support template (Appendix A) is attached.
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2.Program/Project Description - Activities and Findings (Year 3): Overview of Functional Building Block Groups (FBBGs) In this RII effort, our research and infrastructure building activities have been organized and reported at the Functional Building Block Group (FBBG) level. Each detailed FBBG report captures activities, findings and output from both the interdisciplinary research in the building block area as well as from the core groups upon which the interdisciplinary work is based. Overall performance during the term of this project indicates the research effort has achieved its objective of linking core expertise in the pursuit of application inspired device testbeds for molecular detection. At the close of this three-year award, linkages continue to grow between recognition/transduction and transport FBBGs. These linkages initially occurred between the Photonic and Nano/microfluidic FBBGs. The nanokinematic FBBG is now also linking to the Nano/microfluidic FBBG to achieve needed fluidic addressing functions. The Electronic Transduction FBBG has linked with the Nanokinematics and fluidics FBBGs for actin and surface modification expertise. This linkage is not automatic, but comes as a result of the pursuit of devices that necessitate the seamless combination of these technologies, and thus their underlying science and engineering. This building and bridging of core group activities was a major outcome sought from this award. MU research activity is integrated with the Nanokinematic (Blough), Photonic and Fluidic (Georgel), and Electronic (Norton) FBBGs. As with the intra-WVU collaborations, interactions have been truly needs driven based on the discovery undertaken. Norton has had his personnel trained and has used the WVU fabrication facilities. Bloughs f-actin and myosin preparation and characterization is integral to the nanokinematic efforts. Contact and reporting for MU faculty was achieved through their respective FBBG leaders emphasizing project, rather than university boundaries. Conventional teleconferencing has been used and the means to web conference via NetMeeting has been disseminated and used. Further improvements are still needed in this regard as part of the states cyberinfrastructure development so that linkage between two faculty can be done without prior arrangement and reservation. While levels of interaction vastly exceed past RII awards, they are regular only when there is a critical need within the group for the frequent interaction, such as has been the case for the Nanokinematics FBBG. This collaborative depth based on true project need is the key to building real, enduring linkages between MU and WVU. For example, initial discussions with Bin Wang, MUs new faculty hire, were promising, especially given her extensive work in RNA and surface functionalization, however distance and inability to travel by car continue to be barriers in her case. As a result we instituted more technical presentations as part of our WVNano meetings and Wang gave a presentation by video conference. At the recent WVNano Research Symposium (May 11, 2009), Dr. Wang was able to present her research in person. Interactions with WV State University (WVSU) have grown in year three year of the award. The WVNano leadership was invited to give two presentations to the faculty at WVSU over the first two years of the award. In year three, this precipitated a number of visits to the WVU campus on the part of two faculty at WVSU to give presentations and explore potential collaborations. These discussions resulted in integration of WVSU faculty in a subset of the FBBG activity for the follow-on RII proposal. WVSU is a small institution with a limited number of STEM faculty and participation of two of these faculty is a big step forward in integrating WVSU into WVNano research. External collaborations have developed between the FBBG efforts and the U.S. Department of Energys National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), the Centers for Disease Controls NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) facility, the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center at WVU, and local biotech companies in Morgantown (Protea Biosciences LLC) and Huntington (Vandalia Research Inc.). These collaborations span the application areas of health and energy, and their value is
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evidenced by proposal development, activity co-funding and intellectual property (IP) actions. Regionally, increased research and professional interaction has been developed with the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University through interdisciplinary awards. Our faculty members are also collaborating nationally through funded projects with companies in the semiconductor materials and devices sectors; with NIOSH and the University of Montana in the environmental impact of titanium dioxide, with the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Jackson State University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the development of preconcentrator technology to enhance current chemical explosive detection capabilities; and with faculty at the University of North Carolina, Stony Brook and Penn State University. In addition to ORNL, NISTs nanoscience and nanotoxicology group leads visited WVU to determine the potential for technical collaboration with WVU and NIOSH. Internationally, we have established a cooperative agreement and research contract with IC Innova USA/Japan for the mutual research and development of wide bandgap semiconductor devices and nanophotonics for solid state lighting. This two-year award in excess of $1 million has been enabling to some of the efforts of our Photonic FBBG, as the technologies developed are essential building blocks for many sensor architectures as well. As a technology developer, IC Innova is in discussions regarding other potential areas of mutual interest and is in negotiations with WVU regarding establishment of a technology center with sites in Morgantown and Japan. Our faculty have cultivated a relationship with Jilin University in China. The relationship has been supported by WVNano, an additional grant from the State of West Virginia EPSCoR Office, and now the NSF. A series of reciprocal conferences has been established which feature visiting faculty from each campus. The kick-off conference was held in China in 2007 and the first West Virginia conference was held in Morgantown in April 2008. Summer 2009 will see the continuation of this cycle. This interaction is serving as the foundation for graduate student international experience as part of the nanosystems emphasis area WVU is now implementing at the graduate level. As a result of these activities, WVNano was awarded an International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) by the NSF in 2008 that will enable students to expand our collaborative research with China. A common denominator in almost all research efforts is the fundamental need for quality graduate students, post-doctoral associates and research assistant professors. Significant sharing of capable personnel (graduate students and post-docs) already on the ground occurred in order to advance FBBG projects. This created both a beneficial sharing and detrimental effect of excessive time-sharing and loss of focus in some cases for students. Meeting the challenge of staffing needed positions with quality personnel and the interdisciplinary complexity of some building block efforts have resulted in a longer time to achieve desired results than initially anticipated. Strategies to attract and retain quality students and staff in these areas must continue to be developed, best practices distilled, and successful strategies enabled and institutionalized. For research professors and post docs, we have adapted to this challenge by recruiting back our successful graduates who have remained in the region and by making offers to individuals in career couples interested in rejoining the technical workforce. Currently, we have one highly successful research assistant professor hired during the middle of this award. We have hired one female PhD who made excellent contributions to the FBBGs as a post doc but who has since moved from the area and have made an offer to another such individual in a local career couple for a part time visiting assistant professor position. The current award has been critical to our ability to flexibly make these hires that not only fill needed capability voids but help diversify our technical work force. A means to retain this flexibility and ability to act on hiring opportunities must be established. WVNano graduate and undergraduate programs described in the EHRDO section are building the graduate student pipeline to improve the graduate student pool. TheWVNano Graduate Bridge Programaward in order to achieve more competitive stipends. Thewas implemented through this
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outcomes of this program are improving graduate recruitment in WVNano over time. WVEPSCoR is also addressing the need to improve the graduate student pool. A key impediment to attracting high-quality graduate students has been identified as low, non-competitive stipends and fellowships. The WVEPSCoR STEM Fellows grant program provides WVU and MU with fellowships that are competitive and nearly as high as NSF Fellows. This state-level program has become a key driver for increasing graduate stipends at the institutional level. Currently, the STEM Fellows program supports 20 doctoral students. Sustaining the progress made to date and growing what works in these programs is critical to continue the momentum gained. Another systemic issue that emerged over the period of the award was the time to full activation of new faculty labs. New faculty members requiring renovations and purchase of major equipment had to in some cases wait up to a complete academic year before their lab modifications were ready resulting in a delay of productivity. The research office at WVU, in coordination with the deans and physical plant, has responded by creating a rapid response team. The effectiveness of this approach has appeared to improve the situation, though a complete assessment involving the faculty hires is required. The greatest need is to institutionalize (at all levels - especially departmental) the expectation that rapid response is not only required and is not special treatment, but can be achieved with proper stewardship, teamwork, and changes in the administrative processes. Overview of Bridging Expertise Efforts Facultyand Post-Doctoral Hires Ten key technical areas were identified between MU (one) and WVU (nine) where faculty expertise is needed to grow the foundation needed for the FBBGs work. Seven hires have been successfully made in the following areas: 1. Nanobioscience (MU) 2. and Optoelectronic devices and fabrication (WVU)Nanophotonic 3. Nanoelectromechanical Systems (WVU) 4. Nanostructure and material characterization (WVU) 5. Biophotonic and Ultrafast Phenomena and Characterization (WVU) 6. Ab initio modeling (WVU) 7. Molecular Recognition/Structural Biologist (WVU) The seventh hire was made in Fall 2008: 7.) Letha Sooter: Hired by RII/WVNano in fall 2008. Dr. Sooter was WVNanos first hire in the Biology Department at WVU. Sooters group is working on the design of biological molecular recognition processes and elements. Her experience at the Army Research Lab in shaping and applying her scientific discovery through interdisciplinary work in the area of biosensing matches well with WVNano research and education needs. She is engaged primarily in the Nano/microfluidics and electronics FBBGs. WVU Search Process A search continues into the awards final year for the last three technical faculty positions to be hired under this award. These three positions are a supramolecular chemist, device engineering scientist, and a nanobioscientist with strong surface modification and engineering capability. The FBBG groups have expressed continued need for improved surface modification and characterization while the need for additional device expertise is felt in our electronic and photonic FBBGs. Needs have been met where possible through post-doctoral hires and research professors as described earlier. A post-doc was committed to accelerate the supramolecular efforts of Prof. Shi through the Photonic FBBG. Dr. Dawson was hired from local industry as a Research Asst Professor and has thus far been very successful in establishing his device activities within the Photonic FBBG and across FBBGs. In summary, we have
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nevertheless had excellent success and met our metrics of performance despite the delayed filling of these final three positions. However, solidification and growth of research and education in West Virginia at the interface of the bio and nanosciences requires hiring and retention in these critical areas. This interdisciplinary search process at WVU is now well in place due to this RII and is, in a word, adaptive. The process draws on the successful aspects of the prior years and a continued emphasis on targeting underrepresented candidates to fill the positions. The advertisements for all remaining positions have been further modified based on perceived needs from past searches to increase ad clarity and better direct them to the targeted candidate pool. We are utilizing both a common ad that advertises for all four hires across these general areas, as well as specific ads crafted within the initiative and/or departments, one for each position. Through the efforts of Co-PI Dr. Curt Peterson, VPR at WVU, targeted hiring activities have been approved through the University to include interviews with underrepresented individuals without going through the structured search process, e.g. direct invitations to individuals identified from conferences, collaborations or other means. Moreover, resources and processes are now in place to deal with career couples and potential partner hires based on our most recent experience with targeted hiring of female candidates. Our last search cycle yielded three excellent female candidates. We successfully hired only one (Sooter), in part because the two remaining candidates had spousal careers we were unable to accommodate in a timely and efficient way. The WVU Provost has since made a commitment to accommodate the partners of candidates with a companion position given a match of the needs of the corresponding department or unit. The WVNano website, which was planned and implemented at the start of this award, has been extremely effective in developing interest in the initiative and its positions. The website athttp://wvnano.wvu.eduwas put in place in advance of the ads being placed in order for applicants to be able to receive a comprehensive summary of the organization, research and education activities of WVNano. Through this website, a password-protected site is provided and is being used by WVNano to disseminate applications to the search committees. This is the first such use of the web for a search at WVU and, as such , is serving as a model. Overview of Shared Resource Development and Stewardship WVNano Shared Resource Working GroupEstablished: This RII resulted in the establishment of the Shared Resource Working Group (SRWG) at WVU and made it a part of the WVNano organizational structure. This group has representatives from each college that is a major user or steward of nanoscale science and engineering (NSE) resources. The group has developed the criteria for classification of shared equipment, identified the set of shared equipment and worked through initial technical criteria for equipment location among the distributed shared facility sites on campus. The SRWG has successfully launched and now sustains the processes necessary to support the coordinated and collective operation and management of NSE equipment resources on the WVU campus. Efforts to date have focused on the WVU campus given the majority of the States NSE equipment resources resides at this location. Documentation and process information for the SRWG has been shared with MU via Mike Norton. One MU faculty members research team is already using the facilities. MUs new faculty hire (Wang) stated that the existence of the facilities were an important consideration in her decision to come to MU. WVNano Shared Resources Group Established:This campus-wide group presently is comprised of Kolin Brown, PhD as coordinator and Eric Schires, a bachelors-level staff technical associate. These individuals previously worked separately in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (CSEE) and in
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Physics, and now work together to coordinate the operations of the equipment resources they oversee across the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Engineering. This group worked with the SRWG to develop the cost structure for support of the shared resources that is currently in place. A third individual, Andrew Woodworth, has joined the group to help in the technical support of major new equipment (XPS, XRD, E-Beam Writer). Shared Resource Financial Operations Integrated:The finances supporting the NSE shared resources operation (Shared Resources Group salaries, maintenance and operations costs) have all been put under a single accounting umbrella, enabling effective management and assessment. This integration enables complete accounting of fund income and expenditures for shared resources. A recharge account to collect user fees has been established and has run through its first two annual cycles and audits successfully. WVNano Shared Resource Support Plan Finalized and Operational plan for the support of the shared: A resources identified by the SRWG was developed in coordination with the WVNano Deans Advisory Group, the Research Office and WVEPSCoR officials representing the State of West Virginia. The version finalized at the end of 2006 put in place a plan that by its fifth year will establish a shared commitment on the part of users (40%), WVU (40%) and the State (20%) to support this set of shared resources. Agreement on the part of the State and university were signed at the close of 2006. The internal university agreement distributing the commitment among colleges was executed by all parties in spring 2007. The plan was fully implemented in the spring 2007 semester. As the RII grant comes to a conclusion, the system has been an unqualified success with solid usage. Future evolution of the plan will explore migration of large single equipment units (x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), x-ray diffraction (XRD), e-beam lithography) to separate fee structures as demand and usage data warrants. External User Policy: The SRWG has received multiple inquiries from faculty regarding mechanisms available for external use of the shared resources by regional federal lab personnel, industry or other members of higher education in West Virginia. This has intensified with the acquisition of the XPS system. A document been vetted within the university regarding policy issues associated with use and access to these facilities by organizations external to WVU and RII award partners. A fee structure has also been established for industry as well as other users in higher education in West Virginia. Challenges:Needs expressed previously by the FBBGs in the areas of characterization and high resolution lithography are now being met by major equipment acquisitions under this RII award. A TEM was not a part of this RII plan, however has been identified as a need and is the subject of an NSF MRI proposal. Most enabling is that the shared facilities and their support plans now in place enable planning of future equipment in a collective way that has not been possible previously at WVU. The critical issues that have emerged are not uncommon for new shared facilities management. As a result of our distributed equipment resources, one major issue is that of major equipment resource placement and the need to plan for contiguous space for shared facilities. Many of the resources now are distributed across many labs, making their monitoring, management and upkeep more difficult than if they were in a contiguous location. Discussions among faculty and administration reveal the need for a process for shared facility space planning that takes a global view of the benefits and needs of research and education, and weighs these against expectations and unit concerns regarding space, access and ownership in an open and evaluative process. The SRWG addressed this set of issues with the new XPS system by seeking recommendation from the WVNano Deans Advisory Board chaired by the vice president for research. The success of these shared facilities as a university wide experiment requires not only consolidation of personnel and financial management which have already been achieved, but also commitment by the institution to quality space
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dedicated to shared facilities contiguous with the interdisciplinary faculty research efforts that use it. This needs to remain as a focus of future RII efforts. A number of collaborations have been developed that help meet both tool needs and provide expertise. Current collaborations include: X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) Lawrence Berkeley Lab, Advanced Light Source; Stanford Synchrotron Research Laboratory Neutron scattering Los Alamos National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory and NIST-Gaithersburg Spatially resolved Chemical Characterization of Surfaces XPS (Northwestern University), prior to acquisition of our system Biolayer Characterization FTIR (Duquesne University) Laser Design and Characterization Woodruff Lab (DOE NETL) Nanostructure Fabrication and Characterization Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Sandia National Laboratory, New Mexico Transmission Electron Microscopy Oak Ridge National Laboratory In the following section the year 3 activities and finding of the individual FBBGs are summarized. FBBG Activities and Findings FBBG Report: Electronic Transduction Period of Performance: May 2008 April 2009 The Electronic Transduction Functional Building Block Group focuses on the ability to obtain electronic signals from nanostructures. Work during this period emphasized obtaining signals from biomolecular systems. This included molecular100 electronics, protein immobilization, multifunctional electronic50(b) materials and microcantilever biomarker detectors. 0 Activities-50 -100 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0.0 The Electronic Transduction FBBG activities have focused onE Vthree areas: enzyme immobilization on functionalized surfaces,tFoitghuereG1o l ASMlecertdo.ededd-eThMdo()abonP2C9fCYelo microcantilever sensor transduction, the electronic properties ofporphyrin system is shown as sticks and single biomolecules, and the fabrication of novel electronic gold Thethe iron atom as a sphere. multifunctional materials that in the future could be integrated withhown.tionismesaparrinoaotsmoamamgrciltlov)b(cyCecafrusotMAS/ biomolecular sensing elements. We have been especiallysAu/OT--MUA2P9CaYCormdefobinta interested in proteins whose function relies on redox reactionselectrode in 40 mM PBS solution (CYP450, myoglobin) and cancer markers (VEGF).containing 154 mM NaCl at a scan rate of 1.6 V/s under the nitr en-s og aturated condition (dashed lines indicate the background current).
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