Karen Nordell, assistant professor of chemistry, is fascinated by a world most of us never encounter -- the nanoworld. Nanoscale science involves the imaging and manipulation of the tiniest particles, of matter itself, allowing scientists such as Nordell to synthesize and build new structures, atom-by-atom and molecule-by-molecule.
A conventional 8-inch silicon wafer, used to make computer chips, can contain more electronic components than there are people on the planet -- 10 billion components to be precise. Through nanotechnology, scientists hope to make those components even smaller, thereby dramatically increasing the speed of computers.
An inorganic and materials chemist with a doctorate from Iowa State University, Nordell joined the faculty in 2000. In addition to her own research, she is active in exposing her students to the wonders of the nanoworld, through collaboration in research projects that focus on the synthesis and characterization of new polymers. In her chemistry courses, students also regularly synthesize a solution of magnetic nanoparticles called ferrofluid and explore various properties of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which are new semiconductor-based light sources.
Last winter, she attended a joint European Community/National Science Foundation workshop on nanotechnology in Lecce, Italy, and gave a presentation on "Bringing Nanotechnology into the Classroom." At an NSF-sponsored symposium in Washington, D.C., she co-presented a talk and exhibit, "Small Wonders: Exploring the Vast Potential of Nanoscience."
She has a proposal under consideration with the NSF Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education grant program for funding a project focused on incorporating nanoscience and nanotechnology in the undergraduate science curriculum. Her interest in restructuring teaching to include nanoscale science concepts extends well beyond Lawrence, and she and her students have been involved in introducing area school children to scientific experiments that portray this new world.
With Eugénie Hunsicker, assistant professor of mathematics, Nordell is inaugurating a partnership program for Lawrence women science and math majors and eighth-grade girls from two Appleton middle schools.