ROCHESTER, MI – Dr. Virinder K. Moudgil, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost for Oakland University, has announced the launch of the new NanoTech Research & Development Institute on the Oakland University campus in Rochester, MI.

 

Moudgil believes Oakland University’s nanotech initiative will contribute significantly to the emerging sector of science and technology with virtually limitless possibilities. By advancing the understanding and control of the fundamental building blocks of nature, this field of exploration will lead to unprecedented breakthroughs in health care, energy, manufacturing, computer technology, agriculture and more. The NanoTech Institute will serve as the focal point of these breakthroughs.

 

The NanoTech R&D Institute is expected to become a state, national and world leader in nanotechnology research. By recruiting highly accomplished faculty, enlisting bright and ambitious student researchers, and building highly collaborative partnerships with industry, the Institute has already begun to investigate ideas that will lead to findings with meaningful, real-world applications.

 

Dr. T.C. Yih, a nationally recognized leader in nanotechnology research, will lead the NanoTech Institute as Founding Director. Yih, who is also Vice Provost for Research and a Professor of Engineering at Oakland University, is also Coeditor in Chief of the journal Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine, and Coeditor of “Micro and Nano Manipulations for Biomedical Applications,” a book widely seen to be the authoritative volume on nanobiotechnology.

 

Formerly the chair of the Mechanical Engineering and Biomechanics Department at the University of Texas at San Antonio, Yih is well positioned to lead the NanoTech R&D Institute in its mission to attract support for and undertake research projects that will help shape the nanoscale revolution.

 

The mission of the NanoTech Institute is to advance knowledge, promote research and support education in the fields of nanoscale science and engineering. Industry partnerships are at the heart of the Institute. The Institute has already partnered with Octillion Corp., a Washington, D.C.-based technology incubator focusing on the development and commercialization of alternative and renewable energy technologies. Nanorex, another industry partner to the Institute, is a Michigan-based company specializing in developing nano-mechanical engineering tools for the design and synthesis of complex DNA nano-structures. More industry partnerships will be announced in the coming year.