Every February, the Molecular Foundry staff leave the lab to assess the Foundry’s progress, mission, and future.
This year, we didn’t have to go far: the two-day retreat, held February 5-6, 2020, was at the UC Botanical Garden, a 5-minute walk off-site.
After a welcome from our Interim Director, David Prendergast, the staff met its newest members:
Corie Ralston, Interim Facility Director, Biological Nanostructures
Ricardo Ruiz, Staff Scientist, Nanofabrication
Archana Raja, Staff Scientist, Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures
Steve Shelton, Technical Staff, Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis
Kristen McIntosh, Administrator, User Program Office
Among many updates were the recent procurement efforts in Quantum Information Science (QIS), including a quantum-SPLEEM, a new e-beam writer, and a high-throughput fabrication cluster.
The staff engaged in animated breakout sessions to discuss how success should be defined at the Molecular Foundry — Is it the number of high-impact publications produced? The number of patents and startups by users? The number of users served? Or the number of young scientists trained?
As the Molecular Foundry continues to grow its capabilities and research output, these are the questions critical to defining the Foundry’s evolving mission to open new frontiers in energy, electronics, materials science, and biology through nanoscience.
See photos from the retreat:
