Penn, home to renowned programs in law, education, design, social policy, communication, nursing, with close-knit campus layout, is a singularly unique environment to train graduate students in convergent STEAM fields. The core and affiliated NRT faculty are also members of various interdisciplinary centers, including AESOP, The Water Center, and PICS in the fields of materials science, bioengineering, chemical and biomolecular engineering, mechanical engineering, architectural designs, building energy and distributions, data-driven assessment, energy and sustainability, and policy. They themselves have very diverse training background and are uniquely equipped to bring innovative and convergent research and NRT graduate education and training experiences developed for the NRT and through jointly mentorship of the trainees. In turn, we will ground innovations in an education-research-based framework to address NSF’s big ideas, including Growing Convergence Research, and Engineered Living Materials proposed in NSF 2026 Idea Machine.
Besides interdisciplinary research and curriculum education, our trainees will have enriched experience through collaborations or internships with materials industry, Dow Chemicals, national labs, including National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), architecture design firm, KieranTimberlake (KT), the leader in building sustainability, and the non-profit organization, Green Building United (GBU).