To leverage existing experimental and theoretical research facilities to increase the ability of students and faculty to do high quality interdisciplinary materials, nanoscience and nanomedicine research both at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

The departments of Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, and Physics and Astronomy and the Curriculum in Applied Sciences and Engineering (CASE).  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 Institute for the Environment in the Energy and Environment initiative.

IAM is now housed in the second and lower floors of recently completed Chapman Hall (behind Phillips Hall).  The Institute will expand into additional space in Chapman Hall and possibly Caudill Labs when the 'New Venable' building is finished in late 2010.

The Chancellor and the Provost committed eight new faculty plus start-ups and the associated space through donations and other standard funding sources. An array of Federal funds (EPA, Army, DOE) and State (University Cancer Research Fund) grants have allowed IAM to acquire state-of-the-art instruments and nanofabrication equipment to outfit the new CHANL shared instrument facility.  Operating and maintenance funds have come from user fees, the University, UCRF, DOE, and overhead returns from new IAM faculty.

No, the concept is to add value to existing research activities within each department involved in the IAM.

Two reasons: (1) Federal funding in the past decade has shifted more and more toward multidisciplinary team efforts and the IAM will enable UNC to be more competitive for these types of funds. (2) We need to be competitive with other states that have already forged such multi-campus partnerships such as the UCSB/UCLA California Nanosystems Institute.

The CHANL shared analytical instrumentation and nanofabrication facility has no duplication of existing UNC instrumentation facilities, except for certain basic instruments (AFM, SEM) where accessibility and user needs justify it. We work to form partnerships with existing faculty facilities and with departmental facilities to avoid costly duplication.