News > October 15, 2003

By Monica Belford

Contributing Reporter

The university welcomed a new physicist with big ideas about very small things this semester.

David Carroll, associate professor of physics, is an expert in nanotechnology, the rearrangement of atoms within manufactured substances.

Carroll, formerly from Clemson University, accepted a $1 million grant to join the university’s physics department. As the director of the laboratory of nanotechnology that he founded in 1996, Carroll will be working with a team of 14 other scientists at a new facility opening in two weeks on Deacon Boulevard.

Originally from Winston-Salem, Carroll was not lured back to the Triad just for the money.

“I learned how to do physics at Wake with Dr. (Richard) Williams when I was in high school. You don’t grow up in Winston and not think that Wake Forest University is the greatest school in the world,” Carroll said.

Nanotechnology, which involves the use and combination of particles about 100 times smaller than a human cell, is expected to cause enormous changes across entire industries. The technology has the potential to change the production of materials ranging from plastic to stabilized organic light emitting diodes to a variety of biomedical products, including implants, artificial muscles, sensors and more.

Carroll briefly described nanotechnology for the layperson as the creation of “super material from the same carbon that is in a pencil.”

He highlighted the wide potential for nanotechnology.

“We haven’t had the tools before to do this. Nanotechnology gives us new abilities, but the properties of these substances change, and we have to take that into account.”

While the new field has important consequences for the science of manufacturing, it also has social, financial and even political significance, according to Carroll.

The teams now gets half of its funding from the U.S. Department of Defense. Funding also comes from the National Science Foundation and NASA.

“When you want to mount a national effort, you want to have something that will make an impact. We want to be abreast of the best science there is,” Carroll said.

Working to meet these expectations, the lab has created a variety of classified, proprietary and military products. Currently, patents are held on foldable plastic screens manufactured by the program for future Nokia cell phones.

The program also ranks second in the world for atomic resolution.

“We have the best facilities in the world. You go to Harvard or anywhere else and you won’t find anything better,” Carroll said of the equipment and the new lab.

Nevertheless, Carroll and Rick Matthews, professor and chair of the physics department, are looking beyond the funding and science to the impact this research can have on the Triad and the larger community. By attracting bright physics students from around the globe, Carroll’s lab is aiming to create worldwide effects for nanotechnology.

Echoing these sentiments, Matthews said, “There are wonderful opportunities for collaboration here at Wake Forest. We have several outstanding scientists … now we have a whole new realm of possibilities with these new pairings.”

Carroll hopes that the program will create a “spectrum of jobs” for the Triad area. Over a dozen companies in the Triad area will be working with the center, focusing on the production of various products including “smart textiles” that use micro-computers embedded in fabric. Equally advantageous, Carroll hopes his research of tiny particles will generally change the way people live. 

“It is hard to believe that a society that can do the things we have done, has failed so badly in caring for itself. In regard to nanotechnology, the responsibility I bear is to make use of it, which is all society asks of me. I firmly believe it will fundamentally change the way we live. Some people believe getting rid of poverty will be by political means, I believe scientists have come up with a different way to help,” Carroll said.