Zachary Gray is the managing director of Penn State's Center for Nanotechnology Education and Utilization. Credit: Patrick Mansell / Penn State.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – As the managing director for Penn State's Center for Nanotechnology Education and Utilization (CNEU), Zachary Gray spends a lot of his summer in the classroom. He works to teach veterans and students how to work at microscopic scales as part of a 12-week course — the same one that shifted his career path almost two decades ago.
The summer class brings roughly 20 to 30 people together to study microelectronics, semiconductors, and nanotechnology ranging from widely-used pieces like laptop microchips to novel products with unique and specified uses. The program requires a heavy lift on Gray’s part, along with the entire CNEU staff, he said, but the CNEU team enjoys the experience each year.
“We teach them all in a very specialized lab. It's a very tight knit group, and I love helping others learn the things that I learned while I was in the program,” Gray said. “It can become very overwhelming, but it's about finding a balance. I really enjoy seeing how excited the students get as they learn and seeing them grow.”
Long before he was teaching though, Gray had to learn the skills himself. As an undergraduate student in the mid-2000s, Gray was attending a community college in Pennsylvania. His college had a partnership with Penn State that allowed him to earn a two-year degree in nanotechnology. That experience, he said, set him on a path that would define his career.
“I loved State College. I loved the vibe of the college town, the area itself was very welcoming and I was able to go home to visit friends and family on weekends,” Gray said. “But ultimately, this is where I earned the training and the credentials to be qualified for a more technical job.”
A few months after he graduated, Gray found a job opportunity that brought him back to State College. He worked in the area for close to 10 years while he worked to earn advanced degrees through Penn State. The years were a lot of work, he said, but they paid off. After he’d completed his degrees, he found a job in Arizona working with a company that distributes high-powered microscopes.
“It was a wonderful job that paid well and had great benefits, and I loved it,” Gray said. “I got to travel and, although the summers are hot, I really enjoyed Arizona.”
The job worked well for him. But when he was contacted by Penn State about an opening at CNEU, he said, he found himself missing State College and the University he’d attended.
“I had to do a lot of mental gymnastics. I got a spreadsheet out, and I weighed all the pros and cons,” Gray said. “The swing factor was family and friends. I'd made new friends in Arizona, but I wanted to be closer to the people most important to me in this world.”
The work suits Gray’s needs and his career goals, he said, and it also brought him back to an area that he loves.
“I have no regrets. I've really enjoyed everything I've done since I've returned to the University,” Gray said. “I'm in my late 30s now, too, and it's time to settle down a little bit, to buy a house. I knew this was a good spot to make that happen.”
Attending a nanotechnology program at Penn State led him to a new path, Gray said, and now he gets to share the wisdom he’s collected with newcomers to the field. In addition, Gray’s managerial position requires more than helping to teach the CNEU’s programs. He also travels around Pennsylvania to recruit for it, speaking at colleges and high schools to showcase the CNEU as a jumping-off point for a career, something that he himself experienced as a student.
“It’s my job to show potential students that this program is good use of their resources and time. I'm very passionate about that, because it truly did change my life,” Gray said. “The same exact program I went through as a student almost 20 years ago is still here, and it’s designed to help people out.”
Gray has been with CNEU for nearly three years. But the work they’re doing is part of a longstanding legacy of manufacturing and workforce development at Penn State, he said, and he can see that history every day within his department.
“We’ve been national leaders in the areas of workforce development for nanotechnology and semiconductor processing since the late ’90s,” Gray said. “With this University, the people who are here, tend to stay here, because it is a good place to be. People who were involved in my graduate education, I now work with.”
Overall, Gray said, he’s happy to be back where he went to school. Penn State has brought him ample opportunities for growth and development, and now he can start others on the same path.
“I'm a true Penn Stater. When I got the educational experience here, in my four-year degree and graduate degrees, it was excellent,” Gray said. “I wanted to return because I wanted to be surrounded by good educators and people with similar goals and interest.”