Tony Hmelo’s research has taken him from NASA to nanoscience and from New York to Nashville.
Hmelo is associate director for operations and outreach for the Vanderbilt Institute of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, the interdisciplinary group researching new science and technology based on tiny—nanoscale—materials. (Nanotechnology is widely considered the next great scientific frontier.)
As research professor of physics and of materials science and engineering, Hmelo himself is interdisciplinary, since he holds appointments in both the College of Arts and Science and the School of Engineering.