Earlier this month, Governor Rick Scott visited the College of Engineering, where he vocalized his support for making UF a Top 10 university, and strengthening the state’s workforce, by bolstering STEM education and research. While on campus, the governor toured the Nanoscale Research Facility (NRF), where he was presented with a unique gift.
Nowhere else in the western hemisphere do scientists have the means to sculpt a silicon wafer with gold atoms using ion beam lithography. For the occasion of his visit, researchers at the NRF showed the governor what UF’s resident Raith ionLiNE tool – one of only six in the world – is capable of, by engraving his portrait onto a canvas smaller than a red blood cell.
As she presented this gift, Dean Cammy Abernathy put the capabilities of the NSF in context: “Just as we engineers build houses brick by brick, this facility allows us to build very small devices and machines atom by atom.” She explained how the ionLiNE is helping to further the fields of nanomedicine and communications, and how having it and other sophisticated tools on the UF campus are helping to recruit top talent to the state.