CENTER INFORMATION
The NREC is a university-wide user fabrication and metrology center providing state-of-the-art equipment, professional support personnel and infrastructure to enable multidisciplinary research in nanomaterials and nanomanufacturing methods related to fundamental materials science, sensors, actuators, electronics, bio-systems, medical products, optics and integrated nanoscale systems. The Nanotech1 facility supports research projects of faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, and industrial researchers.
The following objectives are being implemented to carry out the mission:
Nanotechnology is an enabling technology for diverse fields and applications, and is expected to be the revolutionary force for industrial and economical development in the 21st century. This revolution will lead to significant benefits for society, such as powerful miniaturized electronic and optical systems, development of new alternative energy sources and materials, development of novel drug delivery schemes, new medical and environmental technologies, and more.
The Nanotech1 building is a shared facility for all University of South Florida faculty and students conducting multidisciplinary research. It contains a whole suite of state-of-the-art measurement instruments as well as sophisticated fabrication equipment that is loaned to researchers for their individual projects. The equipment available in NREC facilities is maintained and operated by a professional staff whose expertise facilitates quick and innovative solutions to researchers' problems. The professional staff also provides intensive training to researchers thus enabling the faculty and student to become independent certified users of the equipment.
An important and critical activity of the center is providing an extensive, state-of-the-art, multi-user research infrastructure to promote nanoscience and nanotechnology. Apart from its significant role in advancing nanoscience research, this infrastructure is also essential as a training and teaching facility for educating the future generations of scientists and engineers. Moreover, the infrastructure and expertise offered at the center are open for external users from other academic institutions as well as from industry.
Research at the NREC deals with diverse fields of nanoscience such as new materials, molecular and nano-electronics, nano-electroptics, nano-medicine and nano-biology. The research will enable technological development of new transistors, memory elements, sensors and biosensors, renewable energy sources, directed drug delivery schemes, and more. The research done at the NREC already has made significant scientific impact both at national and international levels and it also serves to create a new nanotechnology based industry in the USA.
The NREC has provided to our exceptional faculty members, talented graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, visiting scientists, and engineers the tools they need to perform cutting-edge research. The state-of-the-art facilities of NREC have played a pivotal role for our faculty members to win the prestigious NSF CAREER award and they have been named Fellows of various scientific societies. The NREC also helps our faculty members to obtain research funding from both government and private agencies.
We welcome all our users to explore the exciting world of materials and nanotechnology at the NREC for doing cutting-edge interdisciplinary research.