NNCI: The Montana Nanotechnology Facility (MONT)

纳米技术使我们能够在纳米到微米的长度尺度上操纵和询问物理系统，已经在科学研究和工程的许多领域中变得普遍。因此，获得基本的纳米技术工具变得越来越重要，不仅对所谓的纳米技术专家，而且对许多学科和工业界的科学家和工程师也是如此。 蒙大拿州纳米技术设施（MONT）是蒙大拿州州立大学的一个国家纳米科学研究所，通过提供共享使用仪器的机会、关于安全有效使用仪器的专家培训以及为来自不同社区的各级学习者提供关于纳米级科学和技术的基础广泛的教育，促进与纳米技术有关的发现、教育和外联。MONT站点既为北方落基山脉和大平原的区域用户提供服务，也为需要蒙大拿州立大学提供特定专业知识和设备的美国各地用户提供服务。这些用户正在追求各种目标，这些目标涉及保健诊断和外科解决方案的进步、清洁能源、污染土壤的补救战略以及与光学电信、成像系统和先进计算有关的技术。通过加强我们对外部用户的服务，并建立在其独特的制造和表征优势MONT将有助于满足国家对纳米技术的需求，培训将开发未来纳米技术的劳动力，以及教育和宣传，吸引和通知从幼儿园到研究生院的学生和教师，MONT有助于满足区域和国家研究人员在跨学科前沿获得纳米制造工具和工艺的日益增长的需求，拥有与微机电系统（MEMS）和微光机电系统（MOEMS），微流体，具有独特光学，机械或热性能的纳米结构材料，陶瓷材料，生物启发的和生物衍生的纳米结构，以及结合到微米或纳米工程基底中的细菌或细菌生物膜。MONT网站的目标是：（i）增加服务的外部用户数量;（ii）增加MONT用户的集体研究成果;（iii）通过大量杠杆资本投资提高MONT网站在其研究优势领域的能力;以及（iv）为设施用户，STEM教育工作者和公众创造一流的教育机会。这些目标是通过具体的举措来实现的，这些举措将增加实验室人员，以加强对外部用户的培训、援助和宣传，为外部用户建立一个用户赠款计划，以帮助解决设施使用和当地住房的成本，投资于新的工具和能力，并扩大与纳米制造有关的现场和基于网络的教学和推广活动，纳米表征以及纳米技术的伦理和社会影响。该项目专门改善了北方落基山脉/大平原地区获得纳米技术基础设施的机会，并促进了纳米技术影响生命科学、医疗保健、能源、环境和一些重要技术部门的新兴领域的发现、教育和推广。

Nanotechnology, which gives us the ability to manipulate and interrogate physical systems on a length scale of nanometers to microns, has become pervasive in many fields of scientific inquiry and engineering. Access to basic nanotechnology tools has therefore become increasingly important, not only for so-called nanotechnologists but for scientists and engineers from many academic disciplines and from industry. The Montana Nanotechnology Facility (MONT), a NNCI site at Montana State University, promotes discovery, education and outreach related to nanotechnology by providing access to shared-use instruments, expert training on their safe and effective use, and broad-based education about nanoscale science and technology for learners at all levels who come from diverse communities. The MONT site serves both regional users in the northern Rocky Mountains and Great Plains and users from across the U.S. who need the specific expertise and equipment found at Montana State University. Those users are pursuing diverse objectives related to advances in health care diagnostics and surgical solutions, sources of clean energy, remediation strategies for contaminated soils, and technologies related to optical telecommunications, imaging systems and advanced computing. By enhancing our service to external users and building on its unique fabrication and characterization strengths MONT will help to meet a national need for access to nanotechnology, for training of the workforce that will develop the nanotechnology of the future, and for education and outreach that engages and informs students and teachers from kindergarten to graduate school, industrial users and the general public.MONT helps meet the growing need faced by regional and national researchers for access to nanofabrication tools and processes at the interdisciplinary frontiers, with local expertise related to microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and micro-opto-electromechanical systems (MOEMS), microfluidics, nanostructured materials with unique optical, mechanical or thermal properties, ceramic materials, bio-inspired and bio-derived nanostructures, and bacteria or bacterial biofilms incorporated into micro- or nano-engineered substrates. he goals of the MONT site are: (i) to increase the number of external users served; (ii) to increase the collective research output of MONT users; (iii) to enhance the MONT site's capabilities in the areas of its research strengths through heavily leveraged capital investment; and (iv) to create best-in-class educational opportunities for facility users, STEM educators and the general public. These goals are accomplished through specific initiatives that will add laboratory personnel to enhance training, assistance and advocacy for external users, establish a user grant program for external users to help address costs of facility use as well as local housing, invest in new tools and capabilities, and expand both on-site and web-based instructional and outreach activities related to nano-fabrication, nano-characterization and the ethics and societal impacts of nanotechnology. The project specifically improves access to nanotechnology infrastructure in the northern Rockies/Great Plains region, and it promotes discovery, education and outreach in emerging fields where nanotechnology is impacting the life sciences, health care, energy, the environment, and a number of important technology sectors.