NSF Grants Interdisciplinary Awards

The National Science Foundation announced grants to 21 institutions under its Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training program, now in its second year. The awards, which will total $54.5 million over five years, are intended to foster multidisciplinary study and to produce a "new breed" of scientists and engineers with both scholarly and professional acumen.

Two grants are related to photonics. A graduate program at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor will investigate molecularly designed photonic materials, and the program at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville will study the interaction of lasers with matter.