Teaching and Learning (Nano)Materials 2007 Solid state materials chemistry Synthesis, structure and bonding concepts Do not have to solve the SWE to do

Teaching and Learning (Nano)Materials 2007

• Solid state materials chemistry• Synthesis, structure and bonding concepts• Do not have to solve the SWE to do synthesis• Non mathematical conceptual approach can suffice• Its what’s in your head that counts not that you

know where to look it up in a book in a library (Linus Pauling)

• Synthesis is the beginning of the materials food chain for materials scientists and engineers

Teaching and Learning (Nano)Materials

• Materials science, engineering and nanoscience• Couched in mathematics and physics• Deeply analytical approach to materials

engineering• Not usually the inventors of new classes of

materials but the inventors of new products, processes and devices based on existing materials or improvement of existing materials


• Two distinct specialized cultures for more than a Century that has given us much of what we have around us today

• The cultural divide has served us well in the 20th Century

• What has changed in the 21st Century?


• The world has changed – globalization, fierce unrelenting competition in the marketplace and survival of the fittest has altered the criteria for successful science and technology

• The creation and development of intellectual property and the impact it has on the economy and economic worth of nations is of central importance


• What effect did this have science?

• Emergence of the Ologies

• Biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technology


• What is special about the ologies?

• Their hallmark is their interdisciplinarity

• Ologies are highly multidisciplinary and to be successful one has to crisscross the boundaries of traditional disciplines

• One can still specialize but one needs to delve to a certain extent into these other disciplines to understand the problem one is trying to solve


• To be successful in these 21st Century fields one needs to be a “know-it-all” a generalist rather than just a specialist – these are the ones needed to solve 21st Century problems

• How is this possible?

• One needs role models and the right type of teaching and research programs


• Take nanoscience for example

• One studies two years of science

• Then two years of science of small

• One tailors a degree program to be for instance a bionanochemist or a nanoengineer


• What is the secret of success?

• Teamwork, communication, collaboration, understanding how the others think, sensitivity, trust – groups of scientists working together on the “big” questions of our time

• The grand challenges are too grand for a single specialist or non-interacting specialists to solve


• It is adventurous high risk work of this genre that leads to discovery and innovation, high impact science and intellectual property

• The economic worth of a nation is directly related to its creation and control of intellectual property and companies


• Any teething problems and challenges with the ologies and training know-it-alls?

• Mixing up and teaching the disciplines like materials scientists and engineers with materials chemists is challenging!!!

• That is what we have been doing in Chem 325 and Chem 434 for the past three years

• So you are part of an exciting experiment in teaching and learning materials – yes much kicking and screaming but we are getting there – it is hard to overcome a Century of indoctrination!!!


• Breaking down the cultural barriers means understanding how scientists in the other disciplines think, learn and operate when dreaming up and solving problems – how can one group help the other to create something greater than the sum of the parts

• This is the transition one must go through in teaching and learning materials in order to be a “know-it-all” and a team player, to have a good career and to survive in the global economy

• Your are the brave ones, I wish you all good luck in this endeavor!

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Teaching and Learning (Nano)Materials 2007 Solid state materials chemistry Synthesis, structure and bonding concepts Do not have to solve the SWE to do