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From the Directors
 For more on the UNC Science Complex construction project click
here
.The newly established Institute for Advanced
Materials, Nanoscience and Technology (IAM) is an interdisciplinary
endeavor, coordinating research efforts across the internationally
recognized strengths of UNC-Chapel
Hill in polymer science, nanomaterials, and nanobiosciences-areas
critical to our future economy. Faculty
and Students of the IAM are currently drawn from the Curriculum
on Applied and Materials Sciences (CAMS), the Department
of Chemistry, the Department
of Computer Science, the Department
of Mathematics, and the Department
of Physics and Astronomy.
Our goal is to create a new multidisciplinary
research institute across the boundaries of traditional sciences
where exciting new disciplines such as nanoscience and biomedical
engineering emerge. The time is ripe for a new type of nanoscience
and materials institute at UNC that will pool our collective
resources, manage shared facilities, provide concrete infrastructure
for broader collaborations, and extend our ability to do cutting-edge
research. Initial discussions of such an institute among a
small group of UNC faculty members over the 2001-2002 academic
year quickly led to the official creation of the IAM. In September
2002, UNC Chancellor James Moeser announced UNC's support
for the IAM saying, "Some will argue that we cannot afford
new initiatives in the current environment. I would respond
that, while we must be very judicious in taking on new projects,
we cannot afford not to build on our strengths to be the very
best that we can be."
This exciting focus at Carolina in materials
science will promote interactions with other NC university
partners both within the UNC system (NCSU,
NCAT, UNCC,
and NCCU)
and at the private universities (such as Duke
and Wake
Forest), and will interact with existing programs in the
College of Engineering at North
Carolina State University and the emerging joint Department
of Biomedical Engineering between UNC-Chapel
Hill and NCSU.
In order to expand applied sciences and engineering on the
UNC-Chapel Hill campus, Carolina will make significant investments
over the next 5-7 years including the hiring of 10 new faculty
members, a joint investment with NC
State University in the Triangle
National Lithography Center, and the construction of a
world-class major analytical research facility to be housed
in the new state-of-the-art $205 million, 650,000 ft 2 Science
Complex that is under construction at UNC-Chapel
Hill.
With this strong commitment in place, in Fall
2003 we hired our inaugural Deputy Director, Jack
Rowe, who will coordinate collaborative proposal initiatives,
help to coordinate new faculty hiring, oversee the development
of our permanent space in the new UNC Science Complex, and
act as a liaison between the Institute for Advanced Materials
and UNC's sister institutions, Duke,
NCSU, NC
A&T, and the new Triangle
National Lithography Center recently co-founded by UNC-Chapel
Hill and NC
State.
Welcome to the IAM web site; we look forward
to your comments and hope that you will find useful information
here about our exciting new institute, the IAM.
Joseph M. DeSimone, Director
M. Gregory Forest, Co-Director
Robert K. Pinschmidt, Deputy Director
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