The goal of this project is to couple cadmium selenide quantum dots to gold nanorods in order to study the optical properties of this new type of hybrid nanomaterial. We have synthesized both the core shell CdSe/ZnS quantum dots and gold nanorods, which have been characterized using UV-Vis spectrophotometry, fluorometry, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The next step is to covalently link the quantum dots with the gold nanorods. These constructs will then be characterized with TEM and will be ready for optical studies.