Zhihong, Sunil and I appreciate very much those who took the time from their busy schedules and participated at the BNC faculty meeting yesterday. If you couldn’t make it, please review our powerpoint presentation and let us know your feedback or comments:

There are exciting opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations with dozen of new faculty from six departments. You can learn more during BNC seminar series Thursdays 12noon-1pm (see viewgraphs 3-5, 54-55).
We are fortunate to bring many state-of-the-art tools and capabilities in the last 3 years (see viewgraphs 9-21, 32-37)
Our faculty have been very productive and brought $13M in grants since July 1st.
Due to COVID, our recharge income has been reduced. We are ramping up but please let us know if you see any bottlenecks or ideas to improve our operation. Visa delays have impacted many new graduate students. If helpful, our engineering and scientific staff will be glad to support your fabrication or characterization needs.
We are updating BNC tour posters for when we will be back to normal operation, hopefully soon. It will be great to showcase your research. Please contact Neil Dilley (viewgraph 51)

During Winter Break (Dec. 19-Jan. 3), university is closed. Birck cleanroom and laboratories will be open but we typically don’t allow hazardous gases or chemicals (see details in viewgraph 7). We are exploring if it is possible to have higher operation if faculty need to catch up on their research. Please let Ron Reger and Sunil know about your research plans during the winter break. Please send your input by Dec. 1st.
Please note the tentative HVAC interruption and cleanroom shutdown on Jan. 12th (viewgraph 8).

It is real privilege to work with our outstanding faculty, students and staff. Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any suggestions or comments to improve our operation, better serve our diverse users and help increase interdisciplinary collaborations.