Interdisciplinary research has been a part of Nancy Sottos’ academic career almost from the start. Beginning with her undergraduate days at the University of Delaware, Sottos worked with disciplines outside her own field of mechanical engineering.
“I’ve always been brought up in an interdisciplinary environment,” Sottos said. “The main difference is (at Delaware) there was just one center that focused on this. Beckman is much, much broader.”
Sottos, a professor in the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and a member of the Advanced Chemical Systems group, found out just how broadly based research at Beckman is when she was named Co-chair of the Molecular and Electronic Nanostructures Research Initiative in June of 2004.
“Before when I was working in ACS I only knew what was going on in this hallway and, maybe, what goes on in the Nanoelectronics and Biophysics group, which is the next closest group,” she said. “So you start to see the breadth of the (initiatives). It’s just amazing what goes on in the Computational Electronics group and the Computational Biophysics group, the things that each group on their own has accomplished. The prestige and stature of the people is extraordinary.”
Sottos’ own work can also be described as extraordinary. She reported exciting new research last year in the area of responsive polymers– self-healing materials that can repair such things as tires or composite fuel tanks autonomically. These micro-encapsulated systems could be used in everything from “smart paint” to spacecraft. In keeping with the Beckman philosophy, Sottos has teamed up with researchers like chemist Jeffrey Moore, aerospace engineers Scott White and Philippe Geubelle, and materials scientists Paul Braun and Jennifer Lewis in her research projects.
“It’s not an easy connection to often make,” Sottos said. “I don’t think the general public appreciates the difference between a scientist like Jeff and an engineer like myself. Not all scientists and engineers like to work together, but in this building interdisciplinary interactions are facilitated.”
Sottos would be thrilled if the product of her research efforts ended up on Mars one day helping to protect astronauts. “It would be a great achievement,” she said. “It would be extremely rewarding to see a self-healing paint to come out, to see the technology transferred out there after all the research you’ve put in.”