Joe N. Basore Professorship in Nanotechnology and Innovation, 2005

Distinguished Professor, 2005

Fellow, Optical Soc. of America, 2000

Alumni Distinguished Service Award for Research, 1994.

Ph.D. City University of New York, 1973 (thesis work at Bell Laboratories).

Research Associate, University of Rochester, 1973 - 1975.

Assistant Professor to University Professor, 1975 - 1995.

Professor Salamo has nearly 200 publications in prestigious journals and over $20 million in grants and awards in the areas of the growth and underlying science of nanostructures and devices, and in quantum and nonlinear optics. He has been featured in the PBS documentary "Science is golden" (1998), and his research has been featured in Business News (1994), Science News (1994) and Optics News (1993, 94, 97).

Is Color in Nature due to Pigment? No!

Nature provides us with breathtaking examples of elegant and functional nanosystems. From magnetic bacteria that sense the earth's magnetic field using nanosized bar magnets, to the nanoparticles that give brilliant color to a peacock feather (Fig.1), the world around us is filled with examples of nanomaterials in action. These examples illustrate that the interaction between nanoscience and molecular and cell biology can be a strong and significant one. Perhaps for this reason, as the 21st century opens, an active interchange of ideas has begun to develop between biologists and nano scientists, driven by interest in the underlying principles and mechanisms governing Nature. It is clear that this is a time of exciting challenges for both fields, challenges that will present opportunities to develop answers to questions about the networking within and between cells that have long been mysterious and paramount in importance. We invite you to visit and see our program in action and to come and join our nanoscience and engineering team as we face these challenges. Our promise to you is that together we will work hard and that through a cross-disciplinary education you will be prepared with the skill and talent needed to lead innovation at the nanoscale.

The development of new and improved materials and devices has been based on our ability to scale down size. Smaller size has meant faster speed, reduced weight, and lower cost. However, nanomaterials are not simply another step in the miniaturization of materials. Take a piece of gold and continue to cut it in half many times over and eventually we will observe it to change color. As the size of a material is decreased to the nanoscale all of its properties change dramatically - color, strength, chemical reactivity, conductivity, etc., every fundamental characteristic about it undergoes a dramatic change. Even more amazing the organization of nanostructures (Fig.3) also plays a significant role in the properties of a material. Color in animals, for example, is due to the organized array of nanosize structures. The mystery as to why and how this all happens is the focus of our research effort. Our goal is to tailor a number of remarkable properties of 3D arrays: geometry dependent excited state lifetimes; tailored refraction and dispersion, and enhanced nonlinear optical, dielectric, and piezoelectric coefficients, to produce materials that increase the limits of optical resolution, form self-induced solitonic waveguides for optical interconnects, to advance handheld wireless devices, and to provide inexpensive memory that is fast, flexible, scalable, low-power, and non-volatile.

Two principal factors cause the properties of nanomaterials to differ significantly from their bulk size: increased relative surface area, and quantum effects. These factors can change and even enhance its properties. As a material decreases in size, a greater proportion of atoms are found at the surface compared to those inside. For example, a particle of size 50 nm has less than 1% of its atoms on its surface, at 10 nm 20% of its atoms, and at 3 nm nearly half of the atoms that make up the material are on its surface. Thus nanostructures can have a much greater surface area per unit mass compared with bulk material. As growth and catalytic chemical reactions occur at surfaces, this means that a given mass of material at the nanoscale can be much more reactive. In addition to surface effects, quantum effects begin to dominate the properties of matter as the size is reduced to the nanoscale. These affect the optical, electrical, mechanical and magnetic behavior of materials. For example, nano crystalline nickel is as strong as hardened steel. For this reason, as our understanding at the nanoscale and improves there will be great potential to create a range of materials with novel characteristics that make possible multi-functional applications. Recognizing the exciting opportunity, we have brought together a team of researchers at the leading edge of nanoscience to establish a new era in materials based on fabrication with molecular precision.

In addition to the pursuit of new materials we are teaming with biologists to investigate fundamental questions about how cells decide to divide; how they are able to grow or even decide to die; how they are able to communicate so effectively with one another. For example, cells can respond to signals in different ways depending on their location, age, or exposure to other signals. Depending on context, cells respond to signals by differentiating, dividing, polarizing, or even dying. A careful study of these mysteries requires a synergistic blend of tracer nanomaterials, atomic scale manipulation and imaging, optical and electrical characterization, an awareness of the toxicology of nanomaterials, and the ability to handle and model large amounts of data. The focus of our effort is to utilize our strength in each of these areas to understand the underlying molecular science leading to these rather amazing cell abilities and ultimately to manipulate and control them. It is this opportunity that our research program attempts to capture. The story of understanding functional nanosystems is only just beginning and many of Nature's secrets can be understood from a nano materials perspective.

While we propose to use nanomaterials and techniques to learn about biological systems we are also aware that such exciting possibilities raises fundamental questions about how inorganic nanomaterials and biological systems interact and the best means for controlling these interactions. Nanomaterials are, in most cases, foreign materials in biology. How they affect biochemical and cellular processes is a crucial question for exploring bio-systems, as well as for developing a complete picture of their environmental toxic impact. Perhaps a whole new class of toxins or other environmental problems may be created. As nanoparticles are manufactured what waste is produced and what toxicity does it have? Importantly, what happens to these materials when they get into the air, soil, ground water, or skin?