Research Spotlight

Dawn Bonnell

Dawn Bonnell
Trustees Chair Professor
Materials Science and Engineering
Bioengineering

Dawn explores the fundamental basis of property variations at atomic scales in complex materials, exploiting these variations to make functional systems. The Bonnell Group images and manipulates atoms and molecules using scanning probes, and develops new tools for examining behavior at these scales. Dawn and her group induce local property variations to be used as templates in patterning complex nanostructures, such as nanoelectronic and opto electronic devices, and they analyze compound nanostructures, consisting of ferroelectric compounds, synthetic proteins, and nano dots.

More about the Bonnell Group.

Research Opportunities

External Opportunities

There are many organizations, businesses and foundations that provide funding for research in engineering and related disciplines. Each of the resources listed below can be used to find customized lists of opportunities for research funding.

Federal Stimulus Funds: There are many opportunities coming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds that have been distributed to several government agencies like the NIH, NSF and DOE.

SMARTS: An email alert system which allows investigators to receive customized email notifications about funding opportunities matching their specific requirements. (Requires a PennKey.)

SPIN: Searchable database of funding opportunities from the federal government and 1,700 other sources. (Requires a PennKey - instructions for login available here.)

GrantsNet: Searchable database of funding programs for young biomedical researchers, faculty, and administrators from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

COS Funding Opportunities: Searchable database of over 15,500 world-wide funding opportunities in all areas of science, each with comprehensive funding information, and includes COS funding alerts in free email updates on the latest award and sponsor information.

Foundation Center: Searchable database of private foundations providing funding.

FBO.gov: A place to search, monitor and retrieve opportunities solicited by the entire Federal contracting community.

Grants.gov: A searchable database for grant opportunities from the federal government. Registration is required and takes 3-5 days to be validated.

Internal Opportunities (Within Penn)

Bridge Funding from Penn Engineering: The purpose of the Bridge Funding program in Penn Engineering is to provide up to 12 months of gap funding for research projects to enable the continuation of a basal level of lab activity such that a currently funded project may progress to funding renewal.

University Research Foundation: Penn's University Research Foundation (URF) provides start-up funding and funding for small projects, including those to help junior faculty undertake pilot projects, assist established faculty in performing exploratory research, and to provide support in disciplines where extramural support is difficult to obtain and where significant research can be facilitated with internal funding.

Undergraduate Funding Sources: A university maintained list featuring opportunities and resources to assist undergraduates in pursuing research.