The IGERT program focuses on giving graduate students a setting in which they can develop diverse technical skills, broad scientific scope, and team work skills. Students in the two-year program will partake in research as well as courses that cross specific disciplines. Moreover, they will receive guidance from many professors who are experts in their respective fields. Further training includes internship placement and additional mentoring in regions of the semiconductor industry as well as particular national laboratories.

This IGERT program brings together campus-wide and internationally-recognized expertise in materials synthesis, materials characterizations, materials theory and simulation, and device applications at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), spanning five departments (Chemistry and Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Physics) in the Colleges of Natural Sciences (CNS) and Engineering (CoE). We will integrate diverse expertise and work together toward a common goal: To obtain atomic level understanding of how interfaces and defects impact the local electronic structures and functionality of nanoscale electronic, spintronic, and organic/inorganic materials and how they impact the performance of devices based on these materials.

Students will also participate in expanding the scientific awareness and appreciation to younger citizens in the Austin community.