UAlbany College of Nanoscience Awards First Ph.D. Degrees in Nanoscale Science

Nanotechnology is a cross-disciplinary scientific platform that involves manipulating matter at the atomic scale and holds great promise for innovation in such fields as chip making, fuel cell development, drug delivery and sensor technology. Skordas's Ph.D. dissertation examined metal organic chemical vapor deposition of aluminum oxide ultra-thin films for advanced transistor applications. Zeng explored plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition of atomically controlled refractory thin films. Both dissertations target applications in nanoscale devices for emerging generations of computer nanochips.

"It is very exciting to bestow this new doctoral degree on these very talented scientists," said UAlbany Interim President John R. Ryan. "The University is proud to be a leader in pioneering this academic field and believes that Spyridon Skordas and Wanxue Zeng will become leaders as well in this expanding discipline."

"Spyridon Skordas and Wanxue Zeng have made history as the first ever Doctors of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. Their achievements not only make us proud as educators, but herald a sea change in scientific academic research," said Alain Kaloyeros, Ph.D., Vice President of CNSE. "I feel particularly privileged to have served as their research advisor and chair of their doctoral thesis committees. We're extremely pleased to have been able to position CNSE on the forefront of the nanotech revolution and to have had the honor of guiding two such talented scientists."

CNSE is the first institution to award Ph.D. degrees in nanoscale science and engineering and Skordas and Zeng will be the first two Ph.D.s in the world to receive a Ph.D. from a college devoted exclusively to the study of nanoscale scientific concepts. Though Ph.D. degrees focusing on nanotechnology have been available at the University of Washington since 2000, such degrees have been tied to other science disciplines. CNSE officially opened its doors in fall 2004, and Skordas and Zeng embarked on their Ph.D. studies first at the School of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at UAlbany, which was established in 2001 at the Albany NanoTech complex.

Upon graduation, Skordas has assumed the position of optical lithography track process engineer at the IBM 300mm nanochip fabrication facility in East Fishkill, NY. Zeng has accepted at post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Eric Eisenbraun, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Nanoscience at CNSE.

The College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) at the University at Albany-SUNY offers the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) and Masters of Sciences (M.S.) in selected science and engineering tracks pertaining to the nanoelectronic, optoelectronic, optical, nano/micro-electro-mechanical, nano/micro-opto-electro-mechanical, energy, and nanobiological fields. Multiple student entry channels are designed to accommodate students from undergraduate and graduate educational background in physics, chemistry, biology, computer science, and electrical, mechanical, chemical, and biochemical engineering.

Source: Albany NanoTech College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering