NOV. 17–MONTREAL–McGill University, has announced the opening of the $9-million Tools for Nanoscience Facility, based in the Rutherford Physics and Wong Engineering buildings.

Ten researchers from McGill’s Faculty of Science and Faculty of Engineering have teamed up to create the university’s new nanotechnology hub, which consists of 8,000 square feet of lab space.

It includes three closely linked components. The first is a cleanroom with a micro-machining facility. The second component is an atomic manipulation facility, designed to allow McGill researchers to construct new devices atom by atom. The third component is a Beowulf supercomputer dedicated to the modeling of nanomaterials. The Beowolf is currently Canada’s most powerful computer, according to www.top500.org.

Among the research projects planned for the facility are developing new cantilever-based chemical sensors for DNA testing, investigation of atomic scale conductance for the shrinking geometries of integrated circuits, the assembly of nanophotonic devices for future optical communications networks, micro-machined electronic components for next generation wireless devices and integrated miniaturized biomedical diagnostic systems.