The NFT established the George Kozmetsky Award for Outstanding Graduate Research in Nanotechnology as a result of donations from the public. It is given annually to the top one or two graduate students in the state to recognize excellence in nanotechnology research. The awarded funds will be used for stipend, travel, lab supplies, books, equipment and other direct costs associated with the student’s research.

The Graduate Research Awards were the first awards of their kind to be offered in the U.S. to students working in fields related to nanotechnology. According to Conrad Masterson, founder and president of NFT, “These awards recognize the great work underway at Texas universities. Our goal is to help attract the brightest young people in the nation to conduct nanotechnology research; make groundbreaking discoveries; and commercialize products that derive from their work in this state.”

NFT awarded its first Graduate Student Research Fellowships in January 2004, recognizing excellence in nanotechnology research with potential applications in electronics, life sciences and/or energy.  Various foundations, individuals and corporations made the donations that result in these initial grants.

The Foundation selected Shravanthi Reddy, of the University of Texas at Austin, and Vinit Murthy, of Rice University, to receive the 2006 George Kozmetsky Award for Outstanding Graduate Research in Nanotechnology. The awards carry grants of $5,000.00 each.

A scientific review board composed of recognized experts in nanotechnology research used a numerical score to rate each submission. Only 14 out of a possible 600 points separated the four top finalists. The 19 nominees represented diverse fields, including medicine, engineering and natural science. The finalists represented four different universities, including Texas A&M University and The University of Texas at Arlington in addition to Rice and UT Austin .

Reddy's research has focused on modeling the fluid dynamics associated with step-and-flash imprint lithography (SFIL). SFIL uses droplets of photo-polymerizable fluid to fill the lines of a transparent quartz template. The fluid is then "flashed" with ultraviolet light to cure it. It can then be used for standard lithographic processing of electronic or lab on a chip circuits. The key for commercial success of this process is control of the droplets. Reddy developed a simulation that showed the ways in which using multiple droplets dramatically improve the process, including a study that brought new insight into the nanoscale phenomenon of how fluid interfaces move into lithographic features under low capillary number conditions. Results of her work were published in Microelectronics Engineering and Physics of Fluids . Her Ph.D. advisor, UT professor Roger Bonnecaze, said that when her research was presented at the International Society for Optical engineering last year, she was inundated with people asking for copies of her presentation from corporations and industry researchers. Sandia National Laboratories said, “. . . the impact of her work on [their] program is enormous” and has potential customers in industry and government agencies.

Murthy's research has involved creating capsulated nanostructures that can be used as carriers of drugs, dyes or other materials for use in medicine, cosmetics, food and other applications. He co-discovered a simple microcapsule synthesis process that allows any water-soluble compound to be encapsulated easily without damage and has been highlighted in the press, including the highly respected MIT Technology Review . Regarding Murthy, his PhD advisor Michael Wong said Murthy was one of the top students in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in ten years. Wong spoke about the importance of this research at the 2004 Nano Summit in Houston.

The NFT awarded $5,000 each to two in 2005 and 2004 as well.  Past recipients were Balaji Sitharaman and Yuhuang Wang of Rice and Aaron Sauders and Tobias Hanrath of UT Austin.

Applicants are students in Texas universities who are enrolled in a PhD program related to nanotechnology and who have completed a minimum of 30 credit hours of class work towards their PhD. The students must be candidates for medical, natural science or engineering PhD's. Recipients will be selected by the NFT Scientific Review Board. 

The NFT Scientific Review Board is comprised of seventeen of Texas' leading nanotechnology professors from eight universities. Also included on the panel of judges are two nanotechnology entrepreneurs.

The award is no longer made.  When it was, it was given to one or two graduate students and was called the George Kozmetsky Award for Outstanding Graduate Research in Nanotechnology in recognition of the strong support George Kozmetsky gave as a Champion of NFT prior to his recent death. Dr Kozmetsky was co-founder of Teledyne, the former Dean of the College and Graduate School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin and instrumental in establishing Austin as a high tech cluster.

The fellowship could be used for stipend, travel, lab supplies, books, equipment and other direct costs associated with candidates' projects.  However, NFT did not want money reallocated from currently funded research to other, unrelated research as a result of this award.  Rather, this award accelerated existing work or launched a new investigation. The money could not be used for indirect or administrative costs. These projects were under the direction of university professors leading or supporting candidates' PhD's or extending research in an area of investigation that has been funded from some other source. In addition to judging the applicant's research proposal itself, the panel of judges looked at the following qualifications, making the final decision more than a science alone:

• A candidate's academic record;
  
• Applicants' other research completed or underway;
  
• Commitment to technology advancement;
  
• Extra-curricular activities.

The award was paid to the Office of Sponsored Research (or other appropriate university office) who distributed the funds for research to the student.

There were no restrictions on publication of the related research.  NFT had no IP restrictions or limitations.  Intellectual property created by the research is covered by appropriate university regulations, if any.