Drive a big rig - or manipulate molecules

A cutting-edge program at Dakota County Technical College that teaches students to work with mere molecules is getting bigger with the help of a whopping grant.

The Rosemount-based college learned this month that it will receive $3 million over four years from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop a Midwestern training hub from its existing nanoscience technology program.

"They've got 18-wheelers being taught to be driven in the parking lot, and the smell of welding in the air, and they've got a viable nanoscience program," said Thomas Wyrobek, chairman of the program's industrial advisory board and president of Hysitron, a Twin Cities-based company that has hired several of its graduates. "It's pretty amazing."

Companies use nanoscience -- the study and manipulation of materials on a molecular or atomic scale -- to develop products as varied as computer chips, stain-repellent clothing and skin lotion. The prefix "nano" means "one-billionth," so a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.

Dakota County Technical College (DCTC) was the first college in Minnesota and one of the first in the nation to offer two-year associate's degrees in nanoscience technology, according to the school. The program, which graduated its first students in 2006, aims to pump needed workers into a growing field heavily populated by researchers with PhDs.

The grant comes on the heels of $950,000 in NSF funding that the college used to get its program off the ground over three years, but this much larger award signals that the college's model could benefit students and companies throughout the Midwest, said Deb Newberry, chairwoman of DCTC's Nanoscience Department.

"To become a regional center is a big deal," said Newberry, who is now also director of the expanded Midwest Regional Center for Nanotechnology Education, or Nano-Link.

Nano-Link will also work on designing online experiments to give students remote access to state-of-the-art labs that hold tens of millions of dollars in equipment, said Steve Campbell, director of the University of Minnesota's nanofabrication center.