Professor John Sader, University of Melbourne, has been appointed to the position of Adjunct Professor at Trinity College.  Prof. Clive Williams, TCD's Dean of Engineering, Mathematics and Science, presented a certificate to Prof Sader on Friday last, 17th December in CRANN. Prof John Boland, Director of CRANN said "Prof Sader has been visiting Trinity College for eight years and is working closely with a number of colleagues in the School of Physics and CRANN so this recognition is well earned". 
 

CRANN is the first Irish based research centre to be included on a zero-gravity flight conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA) this week. The ESA carries out three microgravity flights a year, one being solely for students and the other two for researchers. Microgravity, a condition when there is very little gravitational force, only occurs for around 20 seconds and allowing the scientist 12 minutes of weightlessness over the day.  Dr. Bazou from CRANN is conducting experiments over three days this week in the area of nanobiology.

CRANN visited six schools during Science Week to pilot a new DVD on nanoscience for Transition Year  students. The DVD will be formally launched during Nanoweek 2011, which will run from January 31st until February 4th.

CRANN revealed last week that is has secured €8.1m in non-exchequer funding over the past 12 months providing employment for over 50 people. The funding was drawn from eleven projects which involve collaborative work with twenty-six industry partners across Europe and the US, including multinational companies and smaller indigenous European companies. In addition CRANN is working with 55 international universities on these projects. The majority of the funding has come from Europe, through a number of sources including the FP7 Cooperation, Ideas and Capacities blocks.

Prof Robert Wolkow from the University of Alberta, Edmonton was in CRANN last week as part of the institute’s International Seminar Series for 2010. Prof Wolkow is iCORE Chair in Nanoscale Information and Communication Technologies, Professor in the Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton and Principal Research Officer with the National Institute for Nanotechnology, Edmonton.