CONJUNTO Scholars & Mentors Program

Professor Halas serves as the Director of the Conjunto Project. She is interested in the rational design of nanoscale optical devices which exploit the plasmon resonant properties of ultrasmall metal structures to focus and manipulate light. This work combines electromagnetic theory with nanofabrication tools developed largely from chemistry. For the past few years her research has focused primarily on Nanoshells, a layered dielectric core/metal shell composite nanoparticle developed in her laboratory at Rice.

Research on the fundamental plasmonic properties of metal nanostructures is currently being extended to other manipulatable nanoscale geometries. Her research group uses a variety of characterization methods for studying the nanostructures that they fabricate, The Halas Nanoengineering Group is actively pursuing applications of nanoshells in biomedicine, in applications relating to ultrafast immunoassays, optically triggerable drug delivery, early stage cancer detection and photothermal cancer therapy.

ADVANCING SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING THROUGH
A COMMUNITY OF SCHOLARS AND MENTORS

The goal of the Conjunto Project is to effect long-range improvement in science education for predominantly minority students and to increase the flow of underrepresented ethnic minorities, particularly Hispanic men and women, into science and engineering careers.

 We accomplish this through careful identification, selection, recruitment and support of individuals that exhibit the potential to develop into elite scientists and engineers. By providing high level science and engineering training and educational opportunities for Conjunto students even before they begin and throughout their pursuit of a PhD in science or engineering, we ensure that the students have every opportunity and tool available to reach their potential.

The Conjunto Project vision also illustrates the almost seamless integration between education and research that this project enables: for instance, the design/simulation/modeling and the nanofabrication components form the foundation of the educational efforts, while the research programs supported by these areas of expertise lie both in fundamental science and in real-world applications. At the heart of our work, we hope to contribute to the advancement of science and technology by facilitating and supporting an intergenerational, interdisciplinary community of science and scientists. We believe that the Conjunto Project is in a unique position demographically and nationally to accelerate and achieve inclusion and advancement of Hispanic Americans into PhD level positions in science and engineering. 

With an 11% undergraduate enrollment, Rice University is ranked in the top ten nationally as a top university for Hispanics. This provides an extraordinary opportunity for our project to make a far-reaching national impact on the production of highly qualified Hispanic PhDs across the disciplines of modern materials research, in leading edge research areas of highly competitive interest for academic and industrial national laboratory positions. 

Research areas include:

• Design/simulation/modeling of devices and systems fabrication.
• Methods for nanophotonic components, devices and systems.
• Fundamentals of nanoscale optics.
• Applications of nanophotonics, including biomedical applications.

This project offers a multiyear commitment promising undergraduate minority students, bringing them into the program in the beginning of their undergraduate experience and mentoring them through to the successful completion of their PhD degree.

Naomi Halas, Ph.D.
Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering,
 and Professor of Chemistry
Nanoengineering, Plasmonics, Nanophotonics

Applications and details for the Conjunto/REU undergraduate programs can be found under “Undergraduates.”    The deadline to apply to the Summer 2007 Program is March 2.

For more information, please contact Carolyn S. Aresu
Administrator, NSF IGERT in Nanophotonics
Rice University
6100 Main St., MS 366
Houston, TX  77005
caresu@rice.edu