ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A DOE groundbreaking ceremony for the 96,000 square foot core facility of the Sandia/Los Alamos joint Center for Integrative Nanotechnology (CINT) — the first Sandia laboratory facilities in Albuquerque built outside Kirtland Air Force Base — will be held at 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, May 25, at the Steve Schiff Auditorium at Sandia. B-roll footage with action shots of nanotechnology will be available for members of the TV media.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., Sandia Labs Director C. Paul Robinson, and Los Alamos Labs Director Pete Nanos are expected to speak and be available for interviews at 11 a.m. at a colorful display in the auditorium lobby. Also speaking will be Raymond L. Orbach, director of DOE’s Office of Science, whose organization provides funding for the project, and Patricia Dehmer, associate director of DOE’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences. Nobel laureate and nanotechnology pioneer Rick Smalley is expected to attend and be available for interviews.
Other invitees include the presidents of the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University, and New Mexico Tech, as well as Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez. The Center is expected to provide research opportunities for the universities and possible jobs for some graduates, as well as bring an increased number of highly educated visitors to lodge and eat in Albuquerque.
Cookies decorated with the CINT logo will be available. Early attendees will receive a tape measure with its casing marked in nanometers; about 200 are available.
At roughly 11:15 a.m., the dignitaries will move to the site selected for the $76 million center, north of the Kirtland fence and west of Eubank Blvd. to break ground for the building. A large CINT sign will designate the spot.
The core facility is devoted to engineering and science investigation of very small things. Deliberately focused on basic research and not the defense realm, the facility will be accessible to university and industry researchers worldwide who investigate the nanorealm, where the components of reactions are about a thousand times smaller than the thickness of a human hair.
Due to advanced ‘jumpstart’ DOE funding, 35 nanoprojects have already begun under the Center‘s umbrella but currently are dispersed throughout the two giant labs. These projects pair outside researchers with researchers and machines already in place at Sandia and Los Alamos — a procedure that will be followed more efficiently once the CINT physical structure is in place.
A smaller preliminary ceremony will be held at Los Alamos on Monday, May 24, at 3 p.m., to celebrate the groundbreaking of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s 30,000 square foot CINT gateway site, which will receive researchers endorsed by the core center in Albuquerque. The meeting will be hosted by Los Alamos Acting Deputy Director Carolyn Mangeng and Sandia Executive VP Joan Woodard. Speakers representing the offices of Sen. Domenici, Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., are expected to participate. Orbach and Dehmer also will speak.