Nanotechnology Research and Study Opportunities

Thousands of study and academic opportunities in Nanotechnology are available internationally. Conferences and summer schools in Nanotechnology are organized regularly in the best academic centers of the world. The majority of universities and many foundations also offer BA, MA, and Ph.D. programs in Nanotechnology as wells as postdoctoral research grants, awards, and fellowships. Below you will find the updated list of international opportunities available in Nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology Scholarships

Nanotechnology Fellowships

Nanotechnology Conferences

Nanotechnology relevant accounts on Twitter

What is Nanotechnology?

For the moment, the best definition of Nanotechnology is that there is not an exact definition. There is extensive research carried in the field, and the term widely rotates across academic society. However, there isn't a unified final formulation of what nanotechnology does. 

What is known at this stage is that Nanotechnology is the science of creating and utilizing very small things. The prefix "nano-" explains the term. It comes from the Greek word "Nanos," which is translated as "dwarf," making Nanotechnology a technology of very small particles. Also, the term "nano" means one-billionth in a scientific society, which also carries the meaning of dealing with the very tiny particle of the technologies. Following this logic, one nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. 

What is the purpose of studying tiny things?

Many human-made technologies make our lives easier and contribute to great improvements in many spheres of life. This effect is especially noticeable in medical technologies, which save human lives or make many diseases compatible with life. However, those technologies also occupy much space and require much raw material, expenses, and energy to produce.

Nanotechnology aims to maintain the same level of usefulness and effectiveness of those technologies, however changing their physical sizes to very small and making them resource-savvy. Nanotechnology explores how to manufacture programable materials, which are lighter, stronger, and require less energy for production than conventional materials. 

Nanotechnologies require fewer production resources because they are produced at smaller atomic and molecular scales. At this size, many material characteristics such as color, conductivity, reactivity, etc., do not matter and do not demand additional work. From the other point of view, building such small things needs significantly more research and an entirely new way of thinking; as usual, chemistry and physics rules do not apply for technologies at the nanoscale. 

Implications of Nanotechnology

The start of Nanotechnology is connected with the inventions of microscopic technologies allowing us to explore things at the nanoscale. Mainly, with the innovations of the Scanning tunneling microscope (STM) and the Atomic force microscope (AFM) in the early 1980s, scientists started to explore the tiniest particles of the structures and invent new ways of manipulating them. 

As of today, most of Nanotechnology's success is at the level of research and development. Laboratories worldwide continuously test the ways to develop nano-level technologies and use them in practical life. Also, there are Nanotech products already produced with the use of nano-enabled materials and processes like nanopatterning. Many countries, such as China, South Korea, India, Brazil, and others, support nanotechnology at the governmental level. 

Some of the expected benefits of Nanotechnology include the following:

  • Health and Sanitation: Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used the technology in 2005 to explore the spread of Malaria disease around the human organism. For that purpose, they used laser beams to bring pairs of small glasses close and far to each other and test the elasticity of red blood cells. 
  • Water purification systems: Nanoscale water filters will be cheaper to manufacture, and they also can be easily cleaned and serve for longer times. This technology can positively impact the water quality in countries with the water issues, such as Bangladesh, India, etc. 
  • Cleaning the environment: Similarly to water systems, nanofilters can also produce environmentally beneficial solutions. For example, small filters can clean up the industrial plants' emissions before they go into the environment.  

Nanotechnology Challenges

Nanotechnology is a field which is not completely explored yet. Scientific opinions differ whether it can improve life or make a negative impact that can become uncontrollable. As mentioned above, the physics and chemistry rules that scientists are well aware of do not work for the technologies at extra small scales. Therefore, there are many doubts about what type of "behavior" the nanotechnologies would have. 

So, one of the first challenges with Nanotechnology is to create a new level of thinking and ethics. Nanotechnologies should be produced and carefully examined before they go wide to understand their main working mechanisms and the results of potential breaks. Also, as nanotechnologies do not exist at broad levels, there are no policies and regulations that countries can apply to them, which is also a concern to consider. 

Also, many scientists think that the spread of the created micro-technologies can become uncontrollable. They can reproduce and accumulate in the environment, food chain, and any other field where they will be initially inserted. In this regard, the most sensitive area of Nanotechnology usage is human health. 

Nanotechnology studies

Nanotechnology majors are more about teaching you the approach and a new way of thinking rather than an established knowledge base. As a discipline in the boiling point of its emergence, Nanotechnology majors mainly teach the research methodologies and some of the more or less practically backed up inventions of the field. 

Generally, Nanotechnology is still not as popular as a separate major. It is mainly included in other majors as a core focus area with a particular emphasis. Mainly, you can study Nanotechnology during the courses such as Chemistry, Physics, Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Materials science, etc. 

Nanotechnology students will have the skills to examine materials' atoms and molecules, analyze their potential alternative utilizations, invent the possible combinations of the tiniest particles, their usage in life, and control mechanisms. 

Nanotechnology Research opportunities

There is not a lack of research directions in Nanotechnology. The majority of its aspects need to be carefully studied. The general research scope of the discipline is divided across the following four ways:

  1. Methods and tools which are necessary to conduct investigations, develop plans and organize the manufacturing processes. 
  2. Safe and sustainable development strategies are necessary to ensure Nanotechnologies comprise environmental, health and safety, and other standards. 
  3. Nanotechnology applications are the juiciest part of the field's research, as here is when researchers decide where they can use the technological advancements to benefit humans. 
  4. Societal dimensions seek ways to integrate Nanotechnology research to develop knowledge and policies, such as enriching Nanotechnology education programs and developing appropriate government policies and infrastructure to regulate the field. 

Nanotechnology is literally invisible but a fascinating world of opportunities. Like every unfamiliar phenomenon, it also scares humanity and raises certain doubts. However, maybe the field can strike its success if more people invest their brains in discovering the real potential of Nanotechnology and the safe ways of its implementation. Therefore, we hope this section of ARMACAD will help you make one of the breakthroughs in the field and make the best of it to improve social life.