The UT Dallas NanoExplorers team recently earned a Tech Titans award from the Metroplex Technology Business Council, which included a check for $15,000 and a trophy.
A UT Dallas program aimed at igniting interest in the sciences among high school students earned a Tech Titan award from the Metroplex Technology Business Council (MTBC).
The George A. Jeffrey NanoExplorers program at UT Dallas was awarded the annual Tech Titan of the Future award from the council.
Dr. Ray Baughman, director of the Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTechnology Institute at the University, founded the NanoExplorers program in 2002 as a way to bring in promising pre-collegiate students to conduct lab work during the summer.
The program inspires high school students to become productive scientists and engineers by helping them to do original research work.
Once accepted into the program, students join faculty members’ research labs based on their interests. They are taught the skills needed to test their ideas and work with others, and are encouraged to play with new concepts and invent. More than 160 students have gone through the program.
“Many individuals at UT Dallas have helped make NanoExplorers successful over the years, and we are very grateful for their support,” Baughman said. “This award is a meaningful and profound recognition of our efforts to interest young people in science.”
Dr. Ray Baughman
The NanoExplorers’ namesake, Dr. George A. Jeffrey, was a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, who gave a high school-aged Baughman the chance to study in a lab. The UT Dallas program promotes nanotechnology-based education for the next generation of scientists and is funded by the Robert A. Welch Chair grant that Dr. Baughman received in chemistry.
The Tech Titan Award-University Level recognizes higher education institutions that encourage students to choose engineering and technology-related disciplines. The Metroplex Technology Business Council is the largest technology trade non-profit organization in Texas.