About NUSNNI

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• About NUSNNI
• Nanoscience and nanotechnology have been
  identified worldwide as the
• key to unlocking a new generation of materials
  and devices with
• revolutionary properties and functionalities.
  The technology has already
• seen commercial success in multi-billion dollar
  industries such as the
• electronics and information storage industry,
  petroleum and  chemical industry and healthcare
  industry amongst others. The excitement over
  nanotechnology derives from the potentials
  associated with designing structures with
  dimensions right down to the fundamental building
  blocks of all materials - atoms and molecules.
  The state of nanotechnology now is comparable to
  the state of computer technology 40 years ago
  this itself is strong motivation for many
  institutes and organisations to embark on
  nanotechnology research.
• The National University of Singapore(NUS)
  acknowledges the global trend that nanotechnology
  is expected to be a key technology. NUS, in
  tradition of spearheading cutting-edge research
  programs, has launched the NUS Nanoscience and
  Nanotechnology Initiative (NUSNNI) to promote
  this area of research. The objective of NUSNNI
  is
• To develop research human capital and
  long-term research capabilities in the strategic
  field of
• nanoscience and nanotechnology.
• To galvanize and coordinate multidisciplinary
  research effort (across departments, faculties
  and
• with the RIs) in nanoscience and
  nanotechnology.
• To help set research priorities and directions
  for high impact nanoscience and nanotechnology
• research.
• To do this, NUSNNI ties-up collaborative efforts
  between various disciplines within the university
  faculties and interested research partners.
  NUSNNI was established in January 2002 to provide
  the necessary support to facilitate efforts by
  faculties, researchers and students interested in
  pursuing this area of research. NUSNNI now
  involves more than 70 faculty and research staff
  from 20 research laboratories from different
  faculties of NUS. NUSNNI has defined strategic
  research focuses in nanoscience and technology,
  and helped its members secure internal and
  external research grants totally amounting to
  S14 million. In addition to promoting research
  collaborations, NUSNNI has also launched various
  degree (PhD, MEng, BEng) programs for nanoscience
  and nanoengineering education with support from
  the Economic Development Board of Singapore.

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Milestones of NUSNNI
2002
On 14, January, 2002, NUSNNI was set up to
promote research in nano- science and
nanotechnology. It is a joint effort of faculty
of science and faculty of engineering which
coordinates multidisciplinary cross-faculty collab
orations in nano-related areas. Prof. Ramakrishna
and Prof. Wee were appointed Co-directors of
NUSNNI.
Later in 2002, the NUSNNI Young Investigators
Club (YIC) was organized to encourage young
researchers to venture out of their traditional
disciplines. Series of nano networking teas were
conducted for initial interactions of NUS
researchers.
2003
In January, the first batch of Ph. D students
supported by NUSNNI scholarship
matriculated. NUSNNI conducted seminars by
external visitors and internal nano-tea
presentation series throughout the year of
2003. NUSNNI members organized various
nano-related symposia of ICMAT 2003 held in
November in Singapore.
2004
In February, the Nanoscience Nanotechnology
Seminar was jointly held by NUSNNI, NTUNNC, and
Temasek Labs_at_NUS/NTU. A joint workshop by CNSI,
IMRE and NUSNNI was conducted in UCSB in April.
NUSNNI was officially launched in association
with the 1st Nano-Engineering and Nano-Science
Congress held in July. The first NUSNNI IAP
meeting was also conducted in July, and five
focus groups were identified and ten focus group
chairs appointed. In August, the first intake of
the EDB-NUS Master of Engineering in
Nanoengineering Programme matriculated.
During 1-4, November, the joint JSPS
Singapore-Japan Symposium on Nanoscience and
Nanotechnology was held at NUS.
_____
2005
The Joint Korea-NUS Bionanotechnology Symposium
was held in July at NUS. In November, the
NUS-Fudan Joint Centennial Symposium
on Bioengineering, Materials Nanotechnology was
organized. The NUSNNI retreat was conducted in
November for strategic review of NUSNNI.
2006
The OLS-NUSNNI Joint Symposium on
Bionanotechnology was conducted on 1-Sept. The
first NUSNNI management board meeting was held on
12-Sept. to review the research achievements of
focus groups. The focus group chairs were
re-appointed.