News

NRG presents a Nanotechnology Workshop in Cotton College University in India in its continued efforts for global capacity building. Achintya Bezbaruah visited the university and presented an invited lecture and coordinated the workshop. NRG members Mohammad Hossain (Enayet), Achintyamugdha Sharma (Tiku), Priyanka Deka, and Cody Ritt demonstrated nanoparticle production and some experiments remotely from NDSU via video conferencing tool (and Internet2 resources).      

NRG recruits five K-12 teachers under Research Experience for Teachers (RET) and Veteran Research Supplement (VRS) grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Retired Army National Guard Adam Gelhlar (Assistant Principal at Cheney Middle school, West Fargo, ND) and Active Duty Air National Guard Brent Nasset (Technology Teacher at West Fargo High School, ND) will work on aspects of nanotechnology and how the nanotechnology hands-on experiments can be used to recruit and retain students in the STEM field. Holly Erickson (STEM Teacher from Westside Elementary, West Fargo, ND) and Eric Dobervich (Science Teacher from Liberty Middle School, West Fargo, ND) will work on nanotechnology experiments and design lesson plans for their respective classes. Susan Duffy (Biology Teacher from West Fargo High School, ND) will conduct allium studies to find out toxicity of various nanomaterials to design a lesson plan for her AP Biology class for 2014-15.  

Middle and high school students presented water research at NDSU. Young, bright minds from across the globe presented innovative ideas on how to reuse water during the second International WateRediscover Conference on May 15. Organized by Nanoenvirology Research Group, the teleconference involved seven teams of middle and high school students from Bangladesh, India, Saudi Arabia and the United States. The team from Uganda couldn’t join on May 15 due to their ongoing holidays and presented their WateRediscover project on July 18, 2013. WateRediscover is an annual event coordinated through a global network of volunteers to involve our youth in research. The program was supported though Dr. Bezbaruah’s NSF BRIGE grant. Organizational work for WateRediscover 2014-2015 has already started and interested teams are welcome to contact Dr. Bezbaruah.  

Nanoenvirology Research Group organized GlobaKonnect Teleconference that connected NDSU undergraduate researchers with their Indian counterparts at Assam Engineering College. The conference was organized as a part of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s efforts to introduce the students and faculty to international collaborations and global exchange of ideas. The program was supported though Dr. Bezbaruah’s NSF BRIGE grant.  

Congratulations to NRGian Mary Pate for being awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation's (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. Pate is the first engineering student and the first female researcher at NDSU to receive the graduate fellowship.Over the course of the five-year GRFP award term, she could take advantage of additional opportunities offered through the GRF program which includes, for example, "the Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide", that offers Fellows the opportunity to enhance their professional development through 3-12 month international research collaborations.  

Nanoenvirology Research Group presented a workshop (February 6 to 9) on bionanotechnology at Assam Agricultural University (AAU), India. The workshop was organized by AAU’s Biotechnology Research Center and Department of Biotechnology. NRGians Dr. Bezbaruah and Dr. Talal Almeelbi traveled to India to offer the workshop and six NRG collaborators (Drs. Dinesh Katti, Eakalak Khan, Kalpana Katti, Donna Jacob, and Senay Simsek) and a NRGian Dr. Harjyoti Kalita participated via video link. Click here for more news...  

Faculty collaborate with NDSU alumnus on food safety project. Five researchers from NDSU’s Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Biological Sciences have been awarded a three-year, $500,000 research grant by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Achintya Bezbaruah, principal investigator; Dinesh Katti and Kalpana Katti from civil engineering; Marinus Otte and Donna Jacob from biological sciences; and NDSU alumnus Jose Gonzalez from Plant Sciences at South Dakota State University (SDSU) will conduct collaborative research to understand the molecular level interactions of two specific engineered nanoparticles (zinc oxide and carbon nanotubes) with crop plants through in-vivo, in-vitro, genetic, genomic and molecular modeling experiments, and relate the information to food safety.  

Middle school, high school students present research at NDSU. Thirty middle school and high school students from four countries met by teleconference at NDSU on November 19 to present research data from an intensive six-month project. During the International WateRediscover Conference, five teams from Bangladesh, India, Uganda and the United States each gave 15-minute presentation on projects where they designed, fabricated and tested wastewater-recycling units following the engineering design process.  

Achintya Bezbaruah, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering has won the prestigious Broadening Participation Research Initiation Grants in Engineering (BRIGE) from National Science Foundation (NSF). During this two year NSF project period (09/11-08/13), Dr. Bezbaruah’s Nanoenvirology Research Group will develop low-impact polymers to coat nanoscale zero-valent iron (NZVI) particles for groundwater remediation. The overall objective of this research is to study the impacts of manipulation of the biopolymer functional groups on dispersion, contaminant degradation, and transport behaviors of polymer coated NZVI particles as well as biodegradability of the polymer coatings themselves. PI Bezbaruah will recruit research students from underrepresented groups and has proposed outreach activities in area K-12 schools. Sep 15,2011

Nanoenvirology researchers receive fellowships from North Dakota Water Resources Research Institute (NDWRRI) with funding from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and North Dakota State Water Commission (NDSWC). Nanoenvirology researcher Christopher Capecchi won the fellowhip for his proposed project titled “Arsenic Contaminated Groundwater Remediation by Entrapped Nanoscale Zero-Valent Iron”. Dhritikshama Roy’s project on “Plant-based Biopolymers for Entrapping Metal Nanoparticles for Arsenic Removal: Biodegradation and Treatability Studies” along with Sharanya Shanbhogue’s project titled “Co-entrapment of iron nanoparticles and trichloroethylene degrading bacteria in alginate biopolymer for groundwater remediation” also got funded.