Jennifer Sample: A Frontrunner in Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is one of today's most exciting fields of research, with the potential to dramatically improve virtually every aspect of
our lives. How can it hold such promise? EP faculty member Jennifer Sample offers a deceptively simple answer. "Some people," she says,
"compare nanomaterials to discovering a whole new toolbox of materials to work with."
When scientists and engineers began working with materials and structures at the nanometer scale - a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter - they discovered that many of them displayed characteristics and behavior they hadn't seen before. Take carbon, for example. It's not known for conductivity or strength. But at the nano scale, it can be as conductive as copper. And if you form it into miniscule carbon nanotubes, it displays more strength than steel. Surprises like this are the kinds of things that excite scientists like Sample, who now shares that excitement with professionals enrolled in EP's Master of Materials Science and Engineering program.
Even as an undergraduate at Penn State in the '90s, Sample focused on nanomaterials. Her research there involved making colloids that would function as sensors. At UCLA, where she earned her Ph.D. in physical chemistry, her thesis was on the coupling of nanoparticles.
At about the time she was getting her degree, the Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory realized that (a) nanotechnology would be vital to their work in the near future, and (b) they lacked nano expertise on staff. In October, 2001, Sample became the resident expert in the subject at APL. There was little of the special equipment required for work at the nano scale. There was no nano funding. And there was no other nano staff. Fortunately, as a long-distance runner, Sample had the fortitude to go it alone and focus on the longer term. Today, APL has the facilities, funding and people to support diverse developments in nanomaterials and nanodevices.
In 2004, when Sample was asked to begin teaching courses at EP, she welcomed the opportunity. She had served as a teaching assistant and mentor as far back as her undergraduate days, and was pleased to get back to it. Now, teaching and co-teaching introductory courses in nanotechnology and nanomaterials, she sums up the experience in three words: "Fun, exciting, and relevant."
As an amateur gourmet cook, Sample has long enjoyed being able to buy the perfect ingredients to create delicious meals. She's pleased to have reached a similar stage in her professional work. She no longer has to conjure up needed materials out of thin air. "Now, you can buy nanomaterials," she says. Which leaves more time for creative thinking on a very small scale.