NASA funds new center at UC Merced

NASA awarded a group of researchers at UC Merced $5 million to establish a research and education center, the university announced Monday. It will be the campus’ largest center to come from outside money.

The center has the potential to educate the local workforce, develop technology for NASA space stations and design technology that could go to the marketplace, researchers said.

The group of researchers proposed the Merced Nanomaterials Center for Energy and Sensing, or MACES, to NASA. The center is meant to harness the university’s nanomaterial research programs, which focus on microscopic technology, and help develop a pipeline for highly qualified workers in science, technology, engineering and math.

Sayantani Ghosh, one of the researchers, said getting the five years of grant money from NASA ibrings prestige to the program. “This is like a springboard for us to get into something really great,” she said.

The research revolves around nanotechnology. The idea is to create new-materials solutions that lead to high-performance, reliable, compact and lightweight energy conversion, storage and sensors for NASA missions.

The UC Merced center’s affiliates include UC Santa Cruz faculty, as well as collaborators at NASA research centers, which will work to recruit, train and retain students.

The program also will look to set the groundwork for educating young people in the Merced area, including educating high school teachers and getting young people interested in space technology.

Jennifer Lu, who headed up the group of researchers, said the program also would work to award scholarships and internships to local high school and college students. The program could provide research opportunities for undergraduate students – particularly underrepresented students – and provide research fellowships to eight or more graduate students annually.

At UC Merced, 46 percent of undergraduate students are Hispanic or Latino, underrepresented minority groups, while 30 percent of UC Santa Cruz students fit the same demographic.

Researchers also noted that technology developed for NASA has been known to be commercialized and put on the marketplace. That could be good news if the technology leads to new businesses in Merced, where the unemployment rate remains several percentage points above the state average.

Sam Traina, the university’s vice chancellor for research and economic development, applauded the efforts of researchers, saying the center could potentially yield critical research on new materials as well as educate the country’s workforce.

“This is a perfect example,” he said, “of how our faculty members are serving the people of California through UC’s dual mission of research and education.”

This story was originally published June 15, 2015 at 9:15 AM with the headline "NASA funds new center at UC Merced."