UT Dallas Magazine - Winter 2012 - (Page 18)

Have confidence in your ideas, even Research is the first step toward innovation and progress. … [Its] existence is the recognition that most things in the world are not understood, at least never well enough for continued progress. Dr. Yves Chabal Texas Instruments Distinguished University Chair in Nanoelectronics and head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering before they are obvious to everyone else. That’s what research is all about. Dr. Marjorie Zielke Assistant professor of arts and technology and associate director of research for the Institute for Interactive Arts and Engineering Teen Scientist Take Max Grunewald. An outstanding student at St. Mark’s School of Texas, Grunewald’s opportunity to study in a UT Dallas lab came home to him with his dad. “My dad sat next to Dr. Baughman at a banquet, and they began talking about their jobs,” Grunewald said. “Dr. Baughman told my dad about his research. [My dad] told him about me, and Dr. Baughman said we should look into some of the programs for younger students.” The George A. Jeffrey NanoExplorers Program—named for Baughman’s mentor—introduces high school students to nanotechnology and encourages them to pursue careers in science and engineering. Grunewald, like all students accepted to the program, worked in a lab with UT Dallas faculty where he was encouraged to learn how the lab operated and to form his own research interests and projects. “Before I even started, I knew I wanted to study alternative energy and ways we can transition to renewable energy,” Grunewald said. He came to the program the summer between his junior and senior years in high school. There, he listened to a presentation given by UT Dallas faculty members outlining their research. “I heard a speech on super capacitors and hybrid energy storage devices,” he said. “I knew right then and there I wanted to work in that lab.” That lab belongs to Dr. John Ferraris, a 36-year veteran faculty member at UT Dallas and head of the chemistry department. Grunewald treated his experience with Ferraris in NanoExplorers like a full-time job. He spent hours learning lab etiquette and procedures in preparation for college, which was still a year away. “Our research here is very much at the interface of chemistry, biology, physics and engineering,” Ferraris said. “We encourage collaboration between departments and among our students. There are so many areas that chemistry touches. We don’t want to be closed off.” The opportunity to reach out to fellow NanoExplorers, UT Dallas students and faculty played a major role in convincing Grunewald to attend UT Dallas. He was Max Grunewald, now a freshman at UT Dallas, spent a summer conducting super capacitor research through the University’s George A. Jeffrey NanoExplorers Program. He was supervised by graduate teaching assistant Jeliza Bonso and Dr. John Ferraris (center), head of the chemistry department at UT Dallas. Max Grunewald 18 utdallas.edu http://www.utdallas.edu

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of UT Dallas Magazine - Winter 2012

UT Dallas Magazine - Winter 2012
Contents
On Campus
From the Lab
Arts and Culture
Courtside Success
Athletics
Research Is Teaching
Town and Gown
In Your Footsteps: An Alumni Perspective
Alumni Notes
In Memoriam
Hindsight

UT Dallas Magazine - Winter 2012