The grant will cover half the US$13.8m needed to build the Nanoscience Metrology Facility, which we located next to the new Physical Sciences Building, currently under construction. Funds raised by the University of Nebraska Foundation and internal university funds will cover the rest of the construction costs.
“This grant reflects our faculty's success and our strength in nanotechnology and materials science,” said UNL chancellor Harvey Perlman.
The 300m² Nanoscience Metrology Facility will provide laboratories, shared research facilities and administrative space in a central location. Core facilities, equipment, labs and faculty are currently spread across the campus.
The new facility will provide facilities for nanofabrication, electron microscopy, as well as other synthesis and characterisation laboratories. It will also permit new collaborative research.
The building will feature multi-use research space to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration. It will provide a low vibration, temperature-controlled, low electromagnetic field environment and cleanrooms necessary for world-class research and measurements.
UNL has a growing and nationally recognised research programme in nanotechnology and materials science. More than 70 physics, chemistry, engineering and other faculty members from the College of Engineering, College of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources collaborate through the Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience. The university also is home to a National Science Foundation-funded Materials Research Science and Engineering Center focused on nanomagnetics.
“This facility will provide the much needed research space for an interdisciplinary and highly collaborative program of research excellence at UNL,” said Prem Paul, vice chancellor for research and economic development.
The Nanoscience Metrology Facility will be completed in the summer of 2011.
Contact www.unl.edu