Dr. Vicki Colvin

Dr. Vicki Colvin received her Bachelor's degree in chemistry and physics from Stanford University in 1988, and in 1994 obtained her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, where she worked under the guidance of Dr. Paul Alivisatos. During her time at the University of California, Berkeley, Colvin was awarded the American Chemical Society's Victor K. LaMer Award for her work in colloid and surface chemistry. Colvin completed her postdoctoral work at AT&T Bell Labs.

In 1996, Colvin was recruited by Rice University to expand its nanotechnology program. Today, she serves as Professor of Chemistry at Rice University as well as Director of its Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN). CBEN was one of the nation's first Nanoscience and Engineering Centers funded by the National Science Foundation. One of CBEN's primary areas of interest is the application of nanotechnology to the environment.

Colvin has received numerous accolades for her teaching abilities, including Phi Beta Kappa's Teaching Prize for 1998-1999 and the Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award in 2002. In 2002, she was also named one of Discover Magazine's "Top 20 Scientists to Watch" and received an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship.

Colvin is also a frequent contributor to Advanced Materials, Physical Review Letters and other peer-reviewed journals, and holds patents to four inventions.

Abstract

Eco-Nano:  The Impact of Engineered Nanomaterials on the Environment
Dr. Vicki Colvin, Director
Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology

Traditionally, nanotechnology has been motivated by the growing importance of very small (d < 50nm) computational and optical elements in diverse technologies.  However, this length scale is also an important and powerful one for living systems.  At Rice, we believe that the interface between the ‘dry’ side of inorganic nanostructures and the ‘wet’ side of biology offers enormous opportunities for medicine, environmental technologies, as well as entirely new types of nanomaterials.  As part of our work on the potential biological applications, we also consider the unintended environmental implications of water soluble nanomaterials.  Given the breadth of nanomaterial systems, we use a carefully selected group of model nanoparticles in our studies and focus on natural processes that occur in aqueous systems.  We characterize the size and surface-dependent transport, fate and facilitated contaminant transport of these engineered nanomaterials.  Models from larger colloidal particles can be extended into the nanometer size regime in some cases, while in others entirely new phenomena present themselves.    We also consider biological interactions of nanoparticles and specifically address the interactions of a classic nanomaterial, C60, with cellular systems.  While the water-suspendable nano-C60 nanocrystal is apparently cytotoxic to various cell lines, the closely related fully hydroxylated, C60(OH)24, is non-toxic, thus producing no cellular response.  Similarly, we have also found that functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes are non-toxic to cells in culture.  More specifically, as the functionalization density of the SWNT increases, the nanotube becomes more inert to cultures.