VT College of Science Quarterly August 2014 Vol. 2 No. 1 | Page 11

Carrie Hughes of Union Hall, Va., a
chemistry/biochemistry major, Rachel
Warnock of Fairfax, Va., a biological
sciences major, and Rachel Ladenburger
of Morehead City, N.C., a biological
sciences major do some site-seeing in
Heidelberg. The three were part of a
group of 20 undergraduate students
who went to Europe during the winter
semester for 3-credit course called International Perspectives on Nanoscience
of Macromolecules held in Germany,
Switzerland and France.

Nanoscience goes
international
I recently was able to take part in a study abroad experience titled “International Perspectives on the Nanoscience of Macromolecules.” It greatly expanded my knowledge on how
processes behind nanotechnology research and entrepreneurship interacts with regional
culture and society.
The course was co-taught by Robert Moore, Tim Long, and Brent Bowden of the Chemistry
Department in the College of Science, and Matt Hull, with the Institute for Critical Technology
and Applied Science. Each student was assigned to an instructor to provide a more personal
mentor for the course.
Undergraduates represented many different academic backgrounds from biological sciences, biochemistry, physics, engineering, and chemistry. We departed Washington D.C. on Jan.
2 headed to Mainz, Germany – home to our hosts from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer
Research. Along with the pleasure of listening to fascinating lectures about current nanotechnology research and fundamentals of the field, we also investigated the cultural significance
of technological entrepreneurship with Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press
in Mainz. These lessons, along with a guided tour of the immense BASF Chemical Company

Robert Moore, professor of phsyical and polymer chemistry and the associate
director for research and scholarship at the Institute for Critical Technology and
Applied Science, provides the welcome lecture to international students at the
University of Mainz, Germany
FEBRUARY 2014

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