Seed Projects and Clusters

The Executive Committee, with advice from the External Academic Advisory Board, evaluates new proposals for Seed projects and the progress of existing ones on an annual basis. Continued funding of Seed projects is contingent on progress and anticipated future performance. In accordance with NSF guidelines, the criteria for Seed funding include (i) support for junior faculty and for investigators changing fields, particularly new cutting-edge research areas, (ii) high-risk research projects, (iii) emerging areas of interdisciplinary research, including the creation of research clusters, and (iv) experimental programs that link UMN MRSEC efforts with industry and other sectors, particularly those that promote long-term industrial collaboration and financial support from the industrial sector.

The Seed program encourages the introduction of individual research faculty, particularly those that are likely to move the Center in new directions, initiate new IRGs, or perform research that may eventually bolster an existing IRG.

Current Seed Projects

New Routes to Biorenewable Plastics: Converting Natural Resources to Environmentally Friendly Materials

• William Tolman
• Marc Hillmyer
• Thomas Hoye

Monodispersed Zinc Oxide Nanoparticle-Dye Dyads and Triads: Characterization of the Early events in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

• Wayne Gladfelter
• Kent Mann
• David Blank

Modeling of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

• Jeffrey Derby
• Eray Aydil

Zeolite Growth in Confined Spaces

• Lee Penn
• Michael Tsapatsis
• Andreas Stein
• Alon McCormick

High Speed Characterization Methods for Polymer Substrates

• Rhonda Drayton

Molecular Engineering of Photo-Responsive Bioactive Surfaces

• Wei Shen

Past Seed Projects

Novel Biopolymers for Targeted Drug Delivery: Peptide-Functionalized Polymersomes

• Efrosini Kokkoli

Novel Magnetic Materials and Nanodevices for Spin Transfer

• Jian-Ping Wang

Oriented Aggregation of Zeolite Nanocrystals: Controlling Twinning and Thin Film Microstructure

• Lee Penn
• Michael Tsapatsis

Structural Properties of Silicon Nanoparticles -- Theory and Simulation

• Traian Dumitrica

Computational and Experimental Design of Nucleation Templates for Controlling Crystal Growth and Polymorphis

Michael Ward

Designed Heterogeneous Nucleation of Polymeric Foams

• Richard McClurg

Measurement and Synthetic Optimization of Nanomechanical Properties of Three-Dimensionally Ordered Macroporous (3DOM) Solids

• Andreas Stein

Microfabrication of Cell/Material Hybrid Constructs Via Laser-Guided Direct Writing: Application to Artificial Tissue Vascularization

• David Odde

Modeling and Design of Crystals Grown from Solution

• Jeffrey Derby
• Michael Ward

Nonlinear Spectroscopic Studies of Nanoscopic Materials Targeted at Phototonic Switching Applications

• David Blank

Organic Semiconductors

• C. Daniel Frisbie

Programmable Reconfigurable Integration of Nanowires on Silicon Substrates

• Heiko Jacobs

Using Biological Structures as Templates for Magnetic Nanostructure Fabrication

• Chris Leighton

Past Seed Clusters

• Defect Control in Naturally-Assembled Photonic Crystals
  
• Metallic Photonic Crystals
  
• Microstructural Mechanics of Bioartificial Tissues
  
• Plasma Surface Passivation of Luminescent Silicon Nanocrystals
  
• Silicon Nanoparticles