On January 20, 2021, members of SHyNE’s advisory committee, steering committee, facility managers, and staff came together along with Director Vinayak Dravid, for SHyNE’s 5th Annual Meeting. It was delightful to meet virtually, and celebrate the goals and achievements SHyNE’s facilities have been able to accomplish under the unprecedented circumstances of 2020!
After a warm welcome from SHyNE director Vinayak P. Dravid, Peter Duda, Technical Director of the Pritzker Nanofabrication Facility spoke briefly about some of the obstacles faced In the past year, including PNF’s current 50% user level capacity as they remain closed to external users at the University due to COVID-19 ‘safe-practices’ in place. However, Peter shared that despite some of the past years challenges, they have been able to hire three new staff members, which is very exciting!
Presentations from our partnering facilities featured highlights from the past year as well as plans for the year to come and new instrumentation acquired for their labs. The Internal Steering and Advisory Committees were able to meet and offer their valuable feedback to the SHyNE administration and staff on future goals and directions for SHyNE as they head into their 6th year and having secured another five years of funding through the renewal of the NSF grant!
It is an exciting time to be part of the National Nanotechnology network and to be involved with creating more opportunities to connect state-of-the-art research facilities to academic, government, and commercial programs and we are looking forward to another 5 years!
Professor Vinayak Dravid, SHyNE Director, opens the meeting and welcomes SHyNE members