Dear Foundry Community,
As the newly appointed Interim Director, it is my pleasure to reach out to you and share my excitement about the current state of the Foundry and our future plans. Before doing so, I wanted to also say that I am honored to step into this role during such an exciting time for the Foundry and its community.
Our recent Annual User Meeting (AUM) was a resounding success, highlighting the vibrant exchange of ideas and the groundbreaking research being conducted across our user community. The meeting keynotes by Professors Deji Akinwande and Aaron Wheeler were inspiring and it was great to hear about how they are pushing advancements in their fields. The AUM is an inspiring opportunity to reflect on the breadth of fields touched by nanoscience, from the future of low-power microelectronics to low-cost diagnostics of refugee populations, that drive our mission to democratize scientific opportunity and access to cutting-edge capabilities. The meeting also provided a platform for discussions on integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) into our research practices, a topic addressed by Lynn Villafuerte from the U.S. Department of Energy. For those who missed it, you can find a detailed recap here.
I am also thrilled to introduce two new staff members to the Foundry: Katherine Sytwu and Alexander Stibor. Katherine is a new staff scientist at NCEM and specializes in optically-coupled and in situ TEM, with a heavy interest in low loss electron spectroscopy and correlative optical/electron spectroscopy for characterizing nanoscale optoelectronic properties. Alexander has joined the Imaging facility as a staff scientist and is focused on harnessing the intrinsic quantum properties of free electrons, such as wave coherence, spin polarization, and non-classical correlations. This fall will also be a busy time to commission new equipment at the Foundry, as we finalize preparations to receive and install 3 scanning electron microscopes, 2 focused ion beam microscopes, and an aberration-corrected Multimodal Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope enabled by the Multi-institutional NSRC-Recapitalization MIE Project.
Looking ahead, we are preparing to post a new opening for a staff scientist in our NCEM facility. This will be a great opportunity for someone with a strong background in computation and cryogenic electron microscopy. We encourage those interested to stay tuned for the official announcement.
Finally, I want to remind you of the upcoming Fall proposal call, which will be open from September 3 through September 26, 2024. We look forward to receiving your submissions and continuing to collaborate with you.
Warm regards,
Andy
Andrew Minor
Interim Foundry Director
