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Columbia Nano Initiative is an interdisciplinary community within Columbia University dedicated to supporting and developing research efforts in nanoscience and nanotechnology.

10/13/2025

We were excited to host Dr. E. H. Yang, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, for a fascinating talk on “Ferromagnetism in Substitutionally Doped TMDs: Toward Spintronics Applications.”

Dr. Yang shared his group’s groundbreaking work on Fe-doped 2D materials and their potential to power the next generation of spintronic memory and biosensing technologies.

A huge thank you to Dr. Yang for visiting and sharing his insights with the Columbia Nano Initiative community!

07/26/2025

After more than six impactful years at CNI, we say farewell to Philippe Chow, our Cleanroom Director, as he heads to Yale University for an exciting new role. Phil has played a key part in shaping CNI’s shared labs into a thriving, collaborative research environment. We’re deeply grateful for his leadership, technical expertise, and dedication to our user community.

Thank you, Phil and best of luck on this next chapter! You’ll always be part of the CNI family.

07/17/2025

AFM in Action at Columbia! We had a fantastic turnout at yesterday’s Atomic Force Microscopy Workshop, co-hosted by Bruker and the Columbia Nano Initiative. Researchers from across disciplines gathered in Havemeyer Hall to explore cutting-edge applications of AFM, featuring insightful talks by Christina McBean (Columbia), Dr. Tai-De Li (ASRC), and Bruker’s own John Thornton and Mike Berg.

The highlight? A hands-on demo of Bruker’s brand-new Dimension Nexus AFM, a powerful, precise, and practical tool for nanoscale discovery.

Huge thanks to all who participated, presented, and helped make this event a success (especially our very own Luca Telesca). Stay tuned for more workshops and tech showcases coming soon!

07/01/2025

Welcome Dr. Jacob Trevino to the CNI

It is our great pleasure to announce that Dr. Jacob Trevino joined Columbia University as the new Senior Director of the CNI Labs.

Most recently, Jacob served as Chief Innovation Officer—and prior to that, as Chief Executive Officer—at Chemeleon, a New York-based startup developing next-generation colorimetric and biological sensors. He brings extensive experience in managing shared nanofabrication facilities. Previously, he served as Director of the Quattrone Nanofabrication Facility at the University of Pennsylvania and as Director of the Nanofabrication Cleanroom Facility at New York University. Many of you may also know Jacob from his time as Nanofabrication Facility Director at the Advanced Science Research Center of the City University of New York.

Jacob is the founder of the Nanotech Alliance, a network of nanotechnologists and non-scientists at all levels of education and experience, which provides resources to promote innovation, collaboration, and accessibility within the nanotechnology and nanoscience communities.

He holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Boston University and an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.

Please join us in warmly welcoming Jacob to the CNI community.

04/28/2025

Last week, we had to say farewell to lab director extraordinaire, Nava Ariel-Sternberg.

Nava joined Columbia Nano in December 2015. In her over 9 years here, she:
* Oversaw 4-fold lab growth to the 132 research groups who currently use the labs
* Managed our clean room renovation
* Established our superuser program
* Streamlined the process for external users to access and use the labs
* Stabilized the lab's budget
* Improved uptime of instruments
* Improved quality of service and training
* And built a strong team and a collaborative work environment

We will miss her around campus, but thank her immensely for her time and commitment to CNI. We wish her good luck and all the best in her future endeavors!

And thank you to everyone who attended her farewell—swipe through for some pictures from the party, and of Nava through the years.

04/21/2025

Congratulations to Dr. on his successful defense. Jacob, a CNI Labs super user during his time at Columbia, devoted his PhD to bridging the gap between quality and scalability in large-area graphene films by oxygen-free chemical v***r deposition.

His work was golden...or rather, copper! In the second slide, check out some of his results from our Atomic Force Microscope:

AFM characterization of the Gr/Cu(111) surface. a, An optical image of the Gr/Cu sample surface (black dotted lines) where the red dots show the locations where the AFM images were taken. b-i, AFM images obtained at these locations display high crystallinity and clean surfaces.

His efforts to move graphene beyond Scotch tape were featured in Nature last spring. Read more about it here: https://www.engineering.columbia.edu/about/news/graphene-gets-cleaned

03/28/2025

It was great to see everyone at our annual Clean Room Users Meeting!

Ready to don your own bunny suit and join us? Check out cni.columbia.edu/columbia-university-clean-room to learn more about our facility and how to gain access.

02/14/2025

Installing new instruments in our labs requires attention and love❤. Checkout this beautiful work done by our chief engineer Mike Maghiar to install the fancy new Across International furnace in the cleanroom😍. Happy Valentine's day from the CNI labs team!

01/31/2025

Columbia Nano - we have bears in the lab!! These tiny creatures who were observed under our Zeiss Light microscope, are called Tardigrade or "Water Bears", and although they are smaller than the naked eye can see, they are tough little ones. Water bears can survive extreme conditions like extreme temperatures or reduced oxygen levels. When their environmental conditions get too harsh, they transition into a dormant state called cryptobiosis in which they dry up and reduce all metabolic activity to an imperceptible level until conditions improve. Smart little guys!!

01/07/2025

We are elevating our lab's capabilities!
This new Across International tube furnace has just arrive to CNI! The furnace can operate at temperatures as high as 1,600C with an alumina crucible accommodating 4" wafers, as well as a digital controller for accurate temperature management. The furnace can be used for annealing and testing and will be installed in our cleanroom in the next few weeks. That's a great start for the new year🥳!

12/17/2024

Happy Holidays from the CNI labs team! We hope that 2025 will be full with collaborative, fruitful, and safe research! Have a great break and see you next year in our labs!

12/06/2024

It's snowing inside our Critical Point Dryer (CPD)! This happens when liquid and gaseous carbon dioxide coexist near the critical point (temperature and pressure when both phases exist). Beyond the critical point this phase distinction will become indistinguishable. This critical-point drying method is used to dry delicate or hydrated samples without destroying their pore structure prior to electron microscopy or other high vacuum analytical techniques. The presence of water molecules will disturb the vacuum and disrupt imaging and the CPD dries them while preserving their surface morphology.

Address

New York, NY
10027

Website

http://cni.columbia.edu/

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