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Nanosystems Engineers

Exploring This Job

There are many ways to learn more about nanotechnology. Read books about nanoscience such as Introduction to Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, by Chris Binns. Explore the field by participating in nanotechnology-related experiments. Visit https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/MatlSci_p042/materials-science/exploring-nanotechnology-paper to learn how to fold, roll, and stack super-strong nanomaterials. Ask your science teacher to suggest other experiments.

Web sites such as About Nanotechnology (https://www.nano.gov/about-nanotechnology) provide a good introduction to the subject. To obtain more information about the general field of chemistry, check out Explore Chemistry (https://www.acs.org/education/whatischemistry.html) and read inChemistry (https://inchemistry.acs.org), the official student member magazine of the American Chemical Society (ACS), and ChemMatters (https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/resources/highschool/chemmatters.html), an ACS magazine for high school chemistry students that’s published four times every school year.

Participate in nanotechnology- and chemistry-related competitions such as the Chemistry Olympiad (https://www.acs.org/education/olympiad.html). Some colleges offer summer internships for high school students who are interested in nanotechnology. Participants get to work closely with the center’s nanoscience and engineering research team to do basic nanotechnology research. Universities sometimes host competitions for college students.

Other methods of exploration include talking to nanomaterials scientists about their careers, joining the Technology Student Association (https://tsaweb.org), and participating in summer programs and classes at colleges and universities that give you the chance to explore nanotechnology, chemistry, and science in general.

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