WELCOME TO CNI
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S RESEARCH INITIATIVE IN NANOTECHNOLOGY
Beginning in the Fall Semester of 2014, Columbia University began to develop a new organization which both builds upon and maintains Columbia’s strong and successful experiences with highly multidisciplinary and collaborative research programs in Nanoscale Science and Engineering. This new research structure stimulates the development of new major research centers and programs and assures the creation and maintenance of the specialized facilities that support and enable these groundbreaking programs.
PURPOSE OF THE CNI
The CNI represents an interdisciplinary community within Columbia University dedicated to the support and development of research efforts in Nanoscale Science and Engineering. The primary activities of the CNI include the following:
► Provide the faculty-based intellectual basis and support for the development of new research concepts, directions, and programs in nanoscience and nanotechnology.
► Provide an administrative and business infrastructure for the development of new research program concepts, for developing research proposals, and for administration of research programs based on nanotechnology, with special emphasis on large scale interdisciplinary research centers.
► Develop, manage, operate, and maintain a set of user shared lab facilities to support research activities in nanoscale science and engineering, and make these available to the entire Columbia community at modest cost. These lab facilities currently include a Clean Room for micro- and nanofabrication, a Materials Characterization Facility, and an Electron Microscopy Facility. The research facilities are also open to external users from other academic institutes as well as from industrial companies. Operating costs—including supplies as well as operating personnel—are partially recovered through “user fees”. CNI also cooperates and collaborates with other universities such as CUNY to make additional capabilities available to the entire Columbia research community.