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Nano-Bio program provides unique research experience

December 17, 2014

For the University of California, Merced, students in this year’s nanoBIO internships and research program, working with something extremely small could have huge implications.

I had no idea nanotechnology could have so many applications in biology,” said John Harvey Paredes, a fourth-year student majoring in materials science. “This internship opened so many doors, so many possibilities.”

Professor Sai Ghosh recommended he apply for it, so he gave it a shot. He was one of seven students accepted to the 2-year-old partnership between UC Merced and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).

Now, he’s certain he wants to go to grad school instead of going straight into an industry job after graduation.

I kind of fell in love with it,” Paredes said.

The undergraduate students, most of who start with no research experience at all, are partnered with UC Merced faculty members working on projects using nanotechnology in a wide range of applications. They attend a two-week workshop at UC Merced, where they are introduced to the projects and research in general.

Then they spend two weeks at UIUC, working with graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and professors from all over the country, learning about different projects and the online tools they can adapt and use for their own research as it continues forward after the summer internship.....

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