EQUATE awards SEED grants
In October 2021, two Nebraska scientists were awarded SEED grants from the EQUATE project to study quantum topics in their research. Funding of $56,000 for each selected topic comes from the National Science Foundation (NSF) via Nebraska’s NSF EPSCoR* RII Track-1 project, “Emergent Quantum Materials and Technologies (EQUATE).”
After a competitive selection process, the proposals chosen for EQUATE SEED grants were:
- Siamak Nejati of University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering proposed “Heterostructures of 2D Materials and Porphyrin-Based Covalent Organic Frameworks as a Tunable Device Platform for Quantum Technologies.” Nejati will work with UNL Chemistry’s Alex Sinitskii on this research.
- Yanan “Laura” Wang of UNL Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) proposed “Dynamic Control of 2D Single-Photon Quantum Emitters via Strain Engineering.” She will work with UNL ECE colleague Christos Argyropoulos, who is an investigator on the EQUATE project.
*EPSCoR is an acronym for NSF’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, comprised of states with relatively lower amounts of annual scientific research funding; Nebraska EPSCoR has successfully advanced team science projects since 1993. EQUATE earned $20 million in funding from NSF EPSCoR for 2021-2026, shared by six higher education sites throughout Nebraska. EQUATE’s 20+ team members collaborate to better understand quantum possibilities via materials science strengths among Nebraska physicists, chemists, engineers, and educators. In addition to the research, EQUATE conducts outreach opportunities that encourage students to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) in their careers.
From left: Siamak Nejati and Laura Wang
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