Achievement

A programmatic goal of the NSMS IGERT program has been to expand the educational impact to all levels of the institution. The Graduate Degree Program in Nanoscience and Microsystems was the first such achievement at UNM. It instituted the first interdisciplinary PhD program at UNM and the first transcripted minor at the PhD level. In 2008, Nanoscience and Microsystems courses were introduced at the undergraduate level in Mechanical Engineering (also as part of an NSF NEU) and in the B.S. degree programs in Chemistry and Physics. The undergraduate course "Physical Chemistry at the Nanoscale" is an upper division elective, and in the last two years over 60 undergraduates have taken the course. This class is a direct spin-off from the NSMS graduate program and it has already established itself as one of the most popular electives in the undergraduate chemistry curriculum.