The Molecular Foundry is a nanoscience user facility located at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emery ...

, and is one of five Nanoscale Science Research Centers sponsored by the United States Department of Energy.

Overview

The Molecular Foundry was founded in 2003. The building was completed on March 24, 2006. The current director, Kristin Persson, was appointed director of the Molecular Foundry in 2020. She follows permanent directors Jeff Neaton (2013-2019),

Omar Yaghi Omar M. Yaghi ( ar, عمر مونّس ياغي; born February 9, 1965) is the James and Neeltje Tretter Chair Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, the Founding Director of the Berkeley Global Science Institute, and ...

(2012-2013), and

Carolyn Bertozzi Carolyn Ruth Bertozzi (born October 10, 1966) is an American chemist and Nobel laureate, known for her wide-ranging work spanning both chemistry and biology. She coined the term "bioorthogonal chemistry" for chemical reactions compatible with ...

(2006-2010). Users of the Molecular Foundry are provided with free access to instruments, techniques and collaborators for nanoscience research that is in the public domain and intended for open publication. Proposals for user projects are solicited to promote interdisciplinary collaboration among scientists studying nanoscale phenomena in materials science, physics, electrical engineering,

environmental engineering Environmental engineering is a professional engineering discipline that encompasses broad scientific topics like chemistry, biology, ecology, geology, hydraulics, hydrology, microbiology, and mathematics to create solutions that will protect and ...

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...

and chemistry in seven interdependent facilities.

Center facilities

* Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, led by Facility Director Alex Weber-Bargioni and was founded by Miquel Salmeron. ** Characterization and manipulation of nanostructures—from "hard" to very "soft" matter—combining

electron microscopy An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of accelerated electrons as a source of illumination. As the wavelength of an electron can be up to 100,000 times shorter than that of visible light photons, electron microscopes have a hi ...

, optical microscopy and scanning probe microscopy. *

Nanofabrication Nanolithography (NL) is a growing field of techniques within nanotechnology dealing with the engineering (patterning e.g. etching, depositing, writing, printing etc) of nanometer-scale structures on various materials. The modern term reflects on a ...

- The

nanofabrication Nanolithography (NL) is a growing field of techniques within nanotechnology dealing with the engineering (patterning e.g. etching, depositing, writing, printing etc) of nanometer-scale structures on various materials. The modern term reflects on a ...

facility is led by Facility Director Stefano Cabrini and was founded by

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. ** Advanced lithography and thin-film processing emphasizing integration with chemical and biological nanosystems and the development of nanoscale

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

magnetic Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particles ...

and photonic devices. * Theory of Nanostructured Materials, led by Facility Director David Prendergast and was founded by Steven Louie. ** Theoretical support to guide understanding of new principles, behavior and experiments—including electrical transport in nanoscale molecular junctions, self-assembly of biological nanostructures and computation of spectroscopy at hybrid nanoscale interfaces. * Inorganic Nanostructures, led by Facility Director Jeff Urban and was founded by

A. Paul Alivisatos Armand Paul Alivisatos (born November 12, 1959) is an American chemist who serves as the 14th president of the University of Chicago. He is a pioneer in nanomaterials development and an authority on the fabrication of nanocrystals and their use i ...

. ** The science of semiconductor, carbon and hybrid nanostructures—including design and synthesis of nanocrystals,

nanowires A nanowire is a nanostructure in the form of a wire with the diameter of the order of a nanometre (10−9 metres). More generally, nanowires can be defined as structures that have a thickness or diameter constrained to tens of nanometers or les ...

and

nanotubes A scanning tunneling microscopy image of a single-walled carbon nanotube Rotating single-walled zigzag carbon nanotube A carbon nanotube (CNT) is a tube made of carbon with diameters typically measured in nanometers. ''Single-wall carbon nan ...

—and study of their electronic applications. * Biological Nanostructures, Led by Facility Director Corie Ralston and was founded by

Carolyn R. Bertozzi Carolyn Ruth Bertozzi (born October 10, 1966) is an American chemist and Nobel laureate, known for her wide-ranging work spanning both chemistry and biology. She coined the term "bioorthogonal chemistry" for chemical reactions compatible with ...

. ** New materials based on the self-assembly of

biopolymers Biopolymers are natural polymers produced by the cells of living organisms. Like other polymers, biopolymers consist of monomeric units that are covalently bonded in chains to form larger molecules. There are three main classes of biopolymers, c ...

and bio-inspired polymers, new probes for bio-imaging and synthetic biology techniques to re-engineer organisms and create hybrid

biomolecules A biomolecule or biological molecule is a loosely used term for molecules present in organisms that are essential to one or more typically biological processes, such as cell division, morphogenesis, or development. Biomolecules include large ...

to interface with devices. * Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis, led by Facility Director Yi Liu and was founded by Jean Fréchet. ** Studies of "soft" materials—including synthesis of

organic molecules In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. The s ...

, macromolecules, polymers and their assemblies, with access to functional systems, photoactive, organic-inorganic hybrid and porous materials. * National Center for Electron Microscopy (NCEM), led by Facility Director

Andy Minor Andy may refer to: People *Andy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Horace Andy (born 1951), Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer born Horace Hinds *Katja Andy (1907–2013), German-American pianist and piano ...

. NCEM was founded in 1983 as an independent DOE user facility and merged with the Molecular Foundry in 2014. ** Use and development of an array of electron microscopes, offering capabilities for materials characterization at high resolution.

User Program

The Molecular Foundry has a user program that gives access to the center's expertise and equipment to external researchers. The program is open to scientists from academia, industry, and research institutes worldwide. The program enables collaboration between Molecular Foundry staff scientists, technical support staff, students, postdoctoral fellows, and collaborating guest scientists. Access is obtained through a brief, peer-reviewed proposal and is free for users who intend to publish their results.

References

{{authority control Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Nanoscale Science Research Centers Laboratories in California United States Department of Energy national laboratories University and college laboratories in the United States Research institutes in the San Francisco Bay Area