| NSF has selected the Southeastern Nanotechnology Infrastructure Corridor (SENIC), a collaboration between Georgia Institute of Technology’s Institute of Electronics and Nanotechnology (GT-IEN), N.C. A&T and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), as a site for the prestigious National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI).
Dr. Oliver Brand, executive director of GT-IEN will direct the SENIC program. The work at A&T and UNCG will be conducted at the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering (JSNN).
Nationwide, NSF will provide a total of $81 million over five years to support 16 NNCI sites, a network of user facilities to advance research, education and infrastructure in nanoscale science, engineering and technology. The SENIC program will receive a total of $8 million in funding. JSNN’s portion of this funding is $1.8 million over five years.
“NSF’s long-standing investments in nanotechnology infrastructure have helped the research community to make great progress by making research facilities available,” said Pramod Khargonekar, assistant director for the NSF Directorate of Engineering. “NNCI will serve as a nationwide backbone for nanoscale research, which will lead to continuing innovations and economic and societal benefits.”
“This grant will provide an affordable, open and one-stop-shop to leading-edge nanofabrication and characterization tools to a growing user community from academia, government, small and large companies across the southeastern United States” said Dr. Shyam Aravamudhan, co-principal investigator and assistant professor of nanoengineering at A&T. “This is the first time that JSNN will be involved in this elite network of nanotechnology user facilities.”
“This new award is a testament to JSNN’s core lab, open-use and shared user model that promotes access to its unique set of state-of-art tools, faculty and staff expertise,” said Dr. James Ryan, founding dean of JSNN.
Dr. Daniel Herr, co-PI and chair of nanoscience at UNCG said, “SENIC will strengthen and accelerate innovation in both traditional disciplines, such as electronics and materials, and newer areas, such as computational nanotechnology, biomedical and environmental sciences.”
Dr. Joseph L. Graves Jr., associate dean for research at JSNN, added, “SENIC will greatly aid our local economies. The 21st century will require a skilled workforce trained in the tools and techniques of nanotechnology. This grant will allow us to implement a comprehensive education and outreach program, embedded with lessons in socially and ethically responsible development and use of nanotechnology, designed to reach a broad and diverse audience of students, teachers and the public.”
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