What does the name Mesa+ mean and how did the institute come into existence?
A 3D silicon chip which is an integral part of most of our modern hardware looks like a flat mountain; that is where Mesa+ gets its name.
Before the existence of Mesa+, there was a center for material science, with different facilities in the clean room like etching, spin coating, MEMS and biomems. Unfortunately, this failed completely in 1997 and at that time these centers were run on their performance basis. Since the center did not do its job well enough, it had to pay back lots of money to Eindhoven. In 1998, the Dutch government, decided to establish six or seven top institutes to focus on specialized areas. Delft and Eindhoven were given large scale silicon-based traditional electronics, and Twente was given micro- and nano- electronics.
Around that time there were various individual groups with no centralized focus on particular areas. In sight of a common goal, the different groups were merged with a funding of 30 million guilders (13.6 million euros). Five young program directors from different faculties like Physics, Chemical Technology and Electrical Engineering were appointed in the field of nanofabrication, nanofluidics, nanoelectronics, nanophotonics and low-temperature physics. In a span of six years they became full professors with the Mesa+.
What are the main areas of focus?
In 1998 it was decided that the area of focus will be nanotechnology. Since then there has been some more additional research interest like microsystems, material process research etc. If you look at it from a practical point of view, nano is like going down from larger scales, but for a chemist like me it's already going up the scale from the atomic and molecular scale. The progress in science is in the direction of making possible what looks impossible to make now. If you look at the past, you would realize that, what we see in the modern technological world as daily commodities were thought impossible to make at earlier times.
Could you tell more about the worldwide collaborations Mesa+ is involved in?
We are one of the major players in nanotechnological education and research in Europe.
In total there are four networks of excellence on nanotechnology in the EU and Mesa+ is a part of two of them - one in Basel, Switzerland and the other one is called Nano2life.
What are the major achievements of Mesa+?
Mesa+ has done quite a lot since its birth. It has initiated Nanonet, a community with expertise in nanotechnology in the Netherlands , which will play an important role in BMTI, the newly formed Institute for Biomedical Technology. A lot of research conducted in the institute makes it to high impact journals like Science and Nature and the likes of PRL and Nano-Letters. Apart from this it has also played a crucial role in entrepreneurship and served as a knowledge base for 33 companies which have originated from it.
Benefit to society?
Nanotechnology is the ultimate in science and technology and in a sense it gives a way to control parameters at smallest scale, which has a wider range of impact and value. Drug design, development and delivery - one of the fields which fall in the umbrella of nanotechnology - are and will remain crucial to society.
How does future of MESA+ look ?
I am very satisfied with the quality, but with the highly competitive scenario nationally and internationally there is lot to be done to maintain the edge in the field. Many Chairs have recently been removed and that is something which worries me. Since most of the money for maintenance for the clean room in Mesa+ comes from PhD projects, the reduced number of Chairs will make this a daunting task. Having said that, Nanonet is becoming an excellent center for Nanotechnology in the Netherlands and spends 35 % of its total expenditure in Twente. The future of Mesa+ looks bright.
