Dear Foundry Community,
With 2024 in full swing, and the rain coming down fiercely in the Bay Area, I’m excited by the promise of the coming year. It has been 20 years since the U.S. established a focus on nanotechnology through the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, which resulted in the creation of the Molecular Foundry and its sister Nanoscale Science Research Centers (NSRCs). This milestone will be celebrated next week at the ‘Enabling the Nanotechnology Revolution’ symposium organized by the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office. In the same vein, the advisory board (BESAC) of DOE’s Basic Energy Science program, which oversees the NSRCs, is finishing their assessment of the NSRCs and we are looking forward to their report. As a user facility whose mission is to serve the research needs of the global scientific community, these are exciting opportunities to hear from voices across the scientific landscape on the importance of designing materials and chemical systems from the bottom up.
On a similar theme, the Foundry’s research and operations staff recently gathered for a two-day retreat to assess where we are as an organization and discuss where we are going. Foundry staff discussed new and upcoming capabilities and also spent time assessing the research output from the past five years in relation to our current research themes.
This exercise is part of a process that will culminate in our DOE Quinquennial Review in May. At that time, we will discuss our past performance and present our plan for the future to our sponsor. We hope that you – our user community – continue to provide input to this vision as it evolves over the coming months, both through formal channels like the User Executive Committee (UEC) and informally through your staff contacts.
We also look forward to hearing from you and, in particular, seeing your research ideas in the Spring proposal call, which concludes March 28.
Have a terrific spring!
Best regards,
Kristin
