Centre scores science research grant

RELEASED: November 6, 2008

DANVILLE, KY—For the third year, Centre College will share two major federal grants totaling more than $14 million to fund high-tech research at Kentucky colleges and universities. The grants are from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Education (USDoE). 

The five-year award, made through Kentucky's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), funds research in three key technological areas: biotechnology, nanotechnology and cyber-technologies.  

The grant will help fund student collaborative research led by Centre's Bill Crummett, professor of physics. Their research involves studies of novel electronic materials in condensed matter physics.

Crummett says, "The grant is important because it allows us to fund student research at the Center for Advanced Materials (at the University of Kentucky), and provide facilities for them here at Centre to conduct experiments in our own condensed matter lab. With the equipment funds, we will be purchasing systems that will allow us to make electrical and magnetic measurements as low as 4.2 Kelvin without having to buy expensive liquid helium."

Centre has a long history of attracting talented and enthusiastic students, and a strong commitment to collaborative undergraduate research. Under Crummett's supervision, students conduct experiments and attend seminars at the Center for Advanced Materials, and during the summers of the grant period Crummett and the students work in the Center’s laboratories. This immersion in both a closely supervised college research environment and the substantial facilities at the Center provide students with a unique, broad-ranged experience.

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Consumers Digest ranks Centre No. 1 in educational value among all U.S. liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

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