Aug 24th, 2010

WATERLOO -- Two professors in

Wilfrid Laurier University's Faculty of Science have been awarded prestigious

Early Researcher Awards from Ontario's Ministry of Research and

Innovation.

Psychologist Nancy Kocovski and

chemist Vladimir Kitaev have each been awarded $100,000 over a five-year term to

facilitate their innovative research. Each professor will also receive a $50,000

matching award from Laurier.

The title of Kocovski's research is

"Mindfulness and Acceptance-Based Treatments for Social Anxiety: Mechanisms of

Action."

Social anxiety, Kocovski says, is

experienced by people who are concerned about being judged by others. It goes

well beyond shyness or fear of using the telephone. At extreme levels, it is

diagnosed as social anxiety disorder. It can be extremely debilitating.

"My recent research has focused on

the development and validation of mindfulness- and acceptance-based group

therapy for social anxiety," Kocovski says.

"It's about being in the present

moment and being willing to experience your anxiety in order to live your

life."

Another method of treating social

anxiety disorder is cognitive behaviour therapy, "which is about changing your

thoughts." Kocovski is currently running a study comparing the two

treatments.

"The aim of the proposed research

is to identify how mindfulness approaches to treatment work in reducing levels

of social anxiety, based on data from patients currently undergoing treatment,

and also in laboratory studies with students and community volunteers," she

says.

The title of Kitaev's research

project is "Nanostructured Materials for Advanced Optical Applications via

Synthetic Control and Self-Assembly of Nanoscale Building Blocks."

Nanoparticles are extremely small

-- a nanometre is one billionth of a metre.

Kitaev and his students have

produced several well-defined nanoshapes including cubic, decahedral (10-sided)

and pentagonal rod silver particles. The importance of this is that "metals at

nanoscale, with a uniform shape, have well-defined optical properties."

To visualize what this means, think

of an opal. Gemstone opals contain spheres of silica, about 150 to 300

nanometres in diameter, organized in a tightly packed hexagonal or cubic

lattice. These ordered spheres of silica produce the sparkling colours that make

gemstone opals so beautiful. They do so by interfering and diffracting the light

that passes through the opal's ordered microstructure.

Kitaev and his students aim to

create something similar using their silver nanoparticles.

To demonstrate, he produces a vial

half-filled with aqueous solution containing nanoscale particles of silver. If

you look at direct sunlight through the vial, the liquid is reddish. If you look

at reflected light through the vial, the light is greenish. You can control the

colour by controlling the conditions of synthesis to produce all the colours of

the rainbow. It will change colour in the presence of targeted chemicals.

These optical properties -- Kitaev

has coined the term "nanorainbows" -- have great potential. Nanoscale metals

could be used in optical sensors to, for example, "detect proteins, DNA or

whatever you want by appropriate nanoparticle modifications."

Kitaev's research has been funded

by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Discovery Grant. In his

case, discovering nanorainbows really was a discovery: "We left the solution on

the windowsill and it became bicoloured. Then we had to find out why. After one

year of research we were the first to report on silver decahedra. We became

greatly fascinated by and involved in the beauty and science of metal

nanoparticles.

"With this ERA funding, producing

ordered materials for use in sensors and optical application becomes

possible."