A democratic appropriator for scientific research, Congressman Chaka Fattah has declared that three research projects have received an award of $978,242 from the National Science Foundation.
Among them two grants deal with nanotechnology-based projects carried out at the Drexel University in Philadelphia's University City science district and University of Pennsylvania.
The first grant amounting to $400,000 was awarded to the University of Pennsylvania to carry out the project titled "MRI: Acquisition of Precision Wafer Aligner and Bonder for Research, Education, and Training in 3-D Micro- and Nano- Mechanical, Electrical and Optical Systems" led by Kevin Turner. An award of $199,400 was granted to the Drexel University for carrying out the project titled "NUE: Nanomanufacturing for Energy and Biomedical Engineering" headed by Ying Sun. The third grant amount of $378,842 was received by the University of Pennsylvania to work on the project, “NeTS: Small: Exploring the Challenges of Network Migration - An IPv6 Case Study and its Consequences," under the supervision of Roch Guerin.
Fattah stated that nanotechnology will have a dominant role in the country’s future production and research work in nanotechnology has led to this transformation. Nanotechnology is a varied field that includes manipulation of matter on a molecular and atomic scale. Researchers utilize these techniques to produce new materials and discover new methods that control matter on the atomic scale in a better way, he added. According to him, the continuous allocation of public money from the National Science Foundation and other government agencies is important for advancing research, so that private units can enhance their processes and products in future.