The Center for Advanced Nanoscale Materials (CANM) at the University of Puerto Rico

The Center for Advanced Nanoscale Materials (CANM) is an interdisciplinary and multicampus research and education University Research Center (URC) partnership project between NASA and the University of Puerto Rico. It will bring together thirteen researchers from three different campuses and four different departments to work on research projects relevant to NASA in collaboration with NASA Glenn Research Center, NASA Ames Research Center, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in areas that correspond primarily to the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, and secondarily to the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.

The main objectives of the CANM are:

1) Faculty and Research/Student Support: CANM research and education opportunities for thirteen faculty and researchers, and three post – doctoral fellows per year for a period of five years as well as fourteen undergraduate and fourteen graduate students per year.

2) Targeted Institution Research and Academic Infrastructure: CANM improves the ability of three Hispanic-serving institutions strategically distributed across the Jurisdiction to enhance their research competency in areas of relevance to NASA and compete for NASA research and development work.

• Life Support Systems: Develop nanoporous sorbent materials and a bioelectrochemical organic removal reactor for air and water treatment.
• Advanced High Energy Materials: Develop nanoscale advanced materials for high–pressure water electrolyzers and high-voltage Li-ion batteries in the 5 V range.
• Non-Carbon Based Sensors: Develop materials that enable new robust and stable, physical and chemical sensing devices that remain operational in harsh conditions.
• Carbon-Based Sensors and Bio-Sensor: Develop gas conductivity-based and enzymatic and DNA sensing processes for air and water environments.

CANM will have long-term impact by increasing the number of underrepresented students who complete undergraduate and graduate education in areas of relevance to NASA, contributing to enhance and diversify the National workforce in STEM.

Moreover, CANM will partner with the Institute for Functional Nanomaterials and PR NASA Space Grant in order to infuse NASA-related content and enthusiasm in the pre-college education pipeline, and will serve as a conduit of information of NASA-related research by using CANM graduate and undergraduate students to design and offer workshops related to CANM projects for pre-college students.

More information:

Carlos Pereira

College of Natural Sciences

University of Puerto Rico

Center for Advanced Nanoscale Materials

www.uprrp.edu