SMARTER STRATEGIES

Training the Next Generation of Nano-workers

Michael Steinhart | Date: 06-18-10 | Comments

If nanotechnology applications continue to grow at their present rate, we'll need millions of specially trained workers to drive the industry. Some entrepreneurial educators are working to fill this need.

If you've been reading Smarter Technology for any amount of time, you know that nanotechnology is a hot and rapidly developing field. With numerous applications in medicine and environmental settings, it could very well revolutionize life as we know it, however clich�d that may sound.

Even as far back as 2001, the federal government was farsighted enough to create a National Nanotechnology Initiative as part of its Office of Science and Technology Policy. Dozens of government agencies are involved in the various research projects being conducted, and dozens of colleges are now offering graduate-level degree programs in nanotechnology.

The problem is that, if nanotech burgeons into a massive industry, it will need more than just high-level thinkers and inventors; it will need a workforce of trained technicians who can use nanoscale equipment and bring these designs to fruition.

In a research report presented in December of 2003, Dr. M.C. Roco, chair of the Subcommittee on Nanoscience, Engineering and Technology of the National Science and Technology Council, forecast that by 2015, nanotechnology and products would become a global, trillion-dollar industry, requiring approximately two million workers.

According to Tom Levesque, general manager of Illinois-based NanoInk, the science has been progressing at the predicted pace, but the workforce numbers have not. "We currently only have about 20,000 trained nanotechnologists in the world. They are primarily the results of high-level, research level-1 institutions � they have all the experience, and they are the nanotechnology workforce. � Those are the senior workers that would direct a technical workforce, and there are no technicians [available]," he stated in an interview with the Dallas Examiner.

To address this shortfall, NanoInk offers a curriculum-plus-materials package for schools looking to train nano-technicians. NanoProfessor includes educational units on the nanoscale; manipulating nano-sized objects; nanotech applications in physics, chemistry and biology; and hands-on labs with atomic force microscopes and desktop nanofabrication systems.

NanoInk provides "student-friendly" atomic force microscopes for budding nanotech workers.

Surprisingly, according to recent coverage of the company, very few U.S. schools are offering this kind of vocational training. NanoProfessor is gaining more traction overseas, where students in economically disadvantaged areas are learning skills that would put them in high demand. From the Popular Science story:

Colombia's Servico Nacional de Aprendizaje (SENA), or National Training Service, purchased the NanoProfessor program earlier this month and plans to use it in high schools in four cities. The program includes a 275-page textbook and several cool devices, including a desktop nanofabrication system, an atomic force microscope, an advanced fluorescence microscope, and various chemical and biological materials used in nanotechnology applications.

It's not likely that this sort of educational program can bring widespread change to underdeveloped areas overnight, but it's encouraging to see a company create a self-contained curriculum that addresses a specific need. This initiative can churn out trained technicians relatively quickly, many of whom will be snapped up by nanotech firms and thus advance the science even further.