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