By Trevor Thornton, Ph.D.
The annual meeting of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI) was held at Georgia Institute of Technology during 18-19 January. Representatives from each of the 16 sites of the NNCI reviewed progress towards the network goals of providing access to advanced nanotechnology tools, staff expertise, and educational opportunities. During the first 12 months of operation the NNCI supported 10,675 individual users across the network who racked up over 900,000 hours of facility use. While the majority of these users were from traditional nanotechnology user communities in materials science, electronics, chemistry and physics, the network saw increased growth from users in the earth sciences, medical and life science communities. In addition to the individual site reports, different breakout groups considered future directions in nanotechnology, education and outreach activities, and the societal and ethical implications of nanotechnology. More details of the annual meeting with links to the different site reports can be found at http://www.nnci.net/nnci-annual-conference-2017.