Joe Magno, executive director of the The North Carolina Center of Innovation Network, is named to the board of the National Science Foundation-backed National Nanotechnology Coordinating Infrastructure.
The NNCI or National Nanotechnology Coordinating Infrastructure is the designated NSF Center supporting the coordination of all NSF designated sites across 15 states and 27 universities. The NNCI sites provide researchers from academia, small and large companies, and government with access to university user facilities with leading-edge fabrication and characterization tools, instrumentation, and expertise within all disciplines of nanoscale science, engineering and technology.
Nanotechnology often requires expensive equipment and extensive specialized expertise. Many university nanotechnology laboratories have over $100M of specialized high technology equipment located in an equally expensive, specialized buildings. The lack of availability of these specialized resources can have a significant effect on innovation at institutions with fewer resources. Support for nanoscale manufacturing and innovation is a specific goal of NNCI (National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network). All facilities have policies for low barrier entry into the user facilities and IP policies which protect the IP of users.
NNCI is a network of open nanotechnology laboratory user facilities, supported by the National Science Foundation. It is the successor to NNIN. Each NNCI site offers user access to a particular set of nanotechnology resources. In North Carolina NC State is partnered with UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University and NC A&T is partnered with Georgia Tech. NNCI facilities will operate as open shared laboratories enabling access to advanced nanotechnology equipment and expertise across the entire range of nanotechnology applications.
“We are pleased that the NNCI has appointed Joe Magno, COIN’s Executive Director to its Board”, said John Hardin, Chairman of COIN’s Board of Directors, “this appointment provides further recognition of COIN’s and North Carolina’s deep involvement and leadership in the rapidly advancing and critical areas of both Nanotechnology and Biotechnology”.
Magno joins nine other NNCI Board members from across the U.S. and has extensive experience in Nanotechnology that includes leadership positions in NYS Government and the State University of New York where he led numerous successful Nanotech Initiatives.
“North Carolina is one of the country’s strongest Nanotechnology Clusters”, said Magno. “Our great universities continue to spawn great nanotech companies such as Cree, Liquidia, Phononic, and others. I’m honored to be able to represent them at a National level.”
Note: NC COIN is a partner of WRAL TechWire.
