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December 9, 2003
UNM CENTER WINS NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION NATIONAL NANOTECHNOLOGY
INFRASTRUCTURE AWARD
The University of New Mexico is part of a team of institutions that has
been awarded the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN),
a five year project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). UNM
now becomes a major player, along with 12 other distinguished universities,
to provide user facilities to support the nation's need for education
and research in nanoscale science and engineering.
 "This
will clearly establish UNM as a leader in nanotechnology research and
will open additional opportunities in science, medicine and economic development
as we go forward," said Steve Brueck, Ph.D., director, Center for High
Technology Materials (CHTM), professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
and professor of Physics and Astronomy." Brueck led a team of UNM faculty
from several departments in developing a proposal to NSF which was submitted
in May. Four other multi-university programs submitted proposals in what
Brueck described as a hotly-contested competition.
Announcement of the grant award was made last week. The NSF will allocate
$14 million annually to NNIN. The annual UNM share will be $600,000. "This
is important for UNM because it means we are playing a larger national
role in the development of nanotechnology," said Terry L. Yates, Ph.D.,
UNM vice provost for research and professor of Biology.
Nanotechnology refers to the increasingly important area of research
dealing with objects whose size is measured in nanometers. A nanometer
is a billionth of a meter, or a millionth of a millimeter. Through the
building of components and machines at these scales, scientists believe
that nanotechnology will have a profound effect on the technology advances
of next decade and beyond. Expectations are high for the business and
economic development communities in New Mexico.
"For UNM, this is the scientific equivalent of making the U.S. Olympic
Team," said UNM President Louis Caldera. Departments and centers at UNM
who collaborated in the grant proposal are CHTM, Electrical and Computer
Engineering, Chemical and Nuclear Engineering, the Center for Micro-Engineered
Materials and the Earth and Planetary Science Department.
Through the award, UNM will become an important destination for many
prominent researchers from academia and industry. They will come to UNM
to use the CTHM facilities which include some of the most sophisticated
laboratories in the state. As an NNIN facility, UNM will work closely
with the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies at Sandia and Los Alamos
National Laboratories to become a major draw for researchers from around
the world. The relationship will be a strategic economic development opportunity
for New Mexico. Only Stanford University and the Department of Energy
Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have a similar geographic
pairing of facilities.
NNIN participants partnering with UNM are: project co-leads Stanford
University and Cornell University, Harvard University, University of Michigan,
University of Minnesota, University of Washington, University of California
- Santa Barbara, University of Texas - Austin, Georgia Institute of Technology,
North Carolina State University, Pennsylvania State University and Howard
University.
For more information about the Center for High Technology Materials at
UNM, visit their Website at http://www.chtm.unm.edu.
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