In the 2001-2002 timeframe, a small group of UNC faculty members came together and began discussing the need at Carolina for more effective means to pursue multidisciplinary research, across the boundaries of traditional sciences to participate in the exciting new disciplines emerging in such areas as nanoscience and biomedical engineering. They saw the time as ripe for a new type of nanoscience and materials institute at UNC that would pool our collective resources, manage shared facilities, provide concrete infrastructure for broader collaborations, and extend our ability to do cutting-edge research. Those initial discussions obviously found wide agreement within the UNC community, as they 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." Founded in 2002 with a university commitment of $10M, IAM has hired 7 new faculty members, participated in a joint investment with NC State University in the Triangle National Lithography Center, and constructed a world-class shared analytical research facility and nanofabrication lab, CHANL, housed in the new state-of-the-art $205 million, 650,000 sq. ft Science Complex at UNC Chapel Hill.
IAM is the home of the newly launched Solar Energy Research Center (SERC), which was awarded a five year $17.5M Energy Research Frontiers Center grant by the Department of Energy. Faculty and Students of the IAM are currently drawn from the newly reorganized Curriculum in Applied Sciences and Engineering (CASE) and the Departments of Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, and Physics and Astronomy. Affiliated Departments include Environmental Sciences and Engineering, the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), the Schools of Medicine and Pharmacology, and the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. IAM is a partner with the Carolina Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence (C-CCNE). IAM is also a partner with the Institute for the Environment in the Energy and Environment initiative.
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