Nanomaterials scientists at The Johns Hopkins
University are teaming with colleagues at Howard University
and Prince George's Community College to attract and train
materials scientists from underrepresented minority groups,
especially African-Americans.
Called the Partnership for Research and Education in
Materials, or PREM, the collaboration will involve
undergraduates in world-class research at Johns Hopkins on
the properties of nanomaterials, materials made of
structures on the order of a billionth of a meter in size.
"The goal is for this partnership to increase the
number of minorities who pursue careers in materials
research, engineering and related fields, including
physics and chemistry," said Daniel Reich of Johns Hopkins,
co-principal investigator of PREM and a professor in the
Krieger School's Henry
A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy. "We'll
do this on several levels, all of which include the sharing
of our resources — both intellectual and in terms of
research infrastructure — with those at the other
institutions."
PREM will receive $2.75 million over five years and is
one of six new such partnerships receiving a total of $15.4
million from the National Science Foundation.
The Johns Hopkins scientists are members of the Johns
Hopkins University Materials Research Science and
Engineering Center, an NSF-funded center that supports
interdisciplinary research on advanced magnetic
nanomaterials. The PREM program will have three basic
components: bringing researchers at Johns Hopkins and
Howard University together for collaborative research;
offering Howard undergraduates the opportunity to perform
research internships at Johns Hopkins; and developing new
courses for students at Prince George's Community College.
In fact, there will be particular emphasis on reaching
out to undergraduate students from underrepresented
minority groups at all three institutions.
"One of the key things we are keeping in mind is that
if students are going to be attracted to careers in the
sciences and in engineering, they need to experience
research in these fields as undergraduates," Reich said.
The PREM at Johns Hopkins, Howard University and PGCC
is one of six such new collaborations. The others are
California State and Princeton universities; Jackson State
University and the University of California, Santa Barbara;
Norfolk State and Cornell universities; Tuskegee and
Cornell universities; and the University of New Mexico and
Harvard University.
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