[BNC-all] Brick Center Updates

[Shakouri, Ali]

Dear All,

I hope everybody had great holidays and best wishes for the New Year. 

Last year was very productive as our faculty in all areas (nano electronics/ spintronics, nano/quantum photonics, nano energy, nanomanufacturing/ SMART films, MEMS/ RF systems, nanobio/ biomedical devices as well as nano characterization and theory/computation) were successful to produce many impactful research results (with >260 publications in 2017) and bring record funding (>$40M in FY2017). Several new major research projects have started or are funded including Microsoft’s Station-Q at Purdue, two SRC/NSF/NIST nCore centers, as well as the Wabash Heartland Innovation Network. Our students and NSAC have been very active running great events (weekly coffee hours, journal club, poster sessions, professional development workshops, social activities) which are essential to bring almost 300 resident students, faculty and staff together and create a vibrant learning community.

Our Birck staff are overseeing some of the largest additions of new tools (JEOL ebeam writer, AJA Ion Mill, R2R manufacturing line, ALD, starting lab preparation for Themis TEM, etc.) and took on major initiatives such as process characterization which will set us apart and can help bring external users. I would like to use this opportunity and express my deep appreciation for all the hard work and dedication shown by our staff. We have an outstanding engineering staff that keep sophisticated equipment and processes running for our vast community (>500 users annually). Our dedicated building operations staff oversee complex installations, coordinate the work with physical facilities and keep our building running smoothly. We also enjoy a great safety record. Our top scientific staff enable, and contribute to, world-class discoveries, and we continue to please our external customers. Although, at times, transition to iLabs was challenging, our outstanding business staff ensure timely account management and billings. Our great administrative staff process purchase orders and travel forms that have increased by 25-50% in the last three years and provide the coordination for many visitors, tours, seminars and numerous other daily activities. This seamless operation is a testament to every staff member’s dedication and skill and how everybody works together beyond the group boundaries to help create a world-class nano center that is envy of many major universities. I have great expectations and trust in our entire Birck staff family and I want to personally thank each of them for their dedication and support.  

During the Fall semester, we had regular meetings with our newly-formed Birck Faculty Leadership committee that brings diverse expertise from across Purdue. In the next couple of months, we will be working on a strategic plan and we will share it with higher administration and the whole Birck community. We hope this will be a blueprint of activities and major initiatives that will increase our preeminence in years to come.

With the new year, there will be some changes in Birck management. Prof. Dimitri Peroulis has been recently appointed as Associate Dean for External Affairs at the College of Engineering and is stepping down as Deputy Director. Dimitri has been serving at Birck since January 2014, and has played a key role in many of our initiatives helping to improve Birck operations significantly. Given the range of activities, I have decided to divide the responsibilities and I am delighted to announce that Prof. Dana Weinstein will be Associate Director for Operations and Prof. Yong Chen will be Associate Director for Research. Yong will oversee our research scientists and work to increase interdisciplinary collaborations, pursue major centers, industry partnerships and international collaborations. Dana will oversee engineering, building and safety staff as well as various aspects of our daily operation, staff cross-training, user feedback and the quality-control process. Please join me in thanking Dimitri for his great service to Birck, and welcoming Dana and Yong to their new positions.

I look forward to a great and even-more productive 2018. 

Best regards
Ali