Cornell CNF annual meeting spotlights breakthroughs in nanofabrication

Cornell's NanoScale Science and Technology Facility (CNF) hosted its 2025 Annual Meeting on November 18 at the Statler Hotel, bringing together researchers, industry partners, faculty, students, and national collaborators to spotlight CNF's leadership in micro- and nanotechnology.

The program showcased advances in photonics, quantum devices, semiconductor fabrication, sustainability, life sciences and workforce development. Speakers across academia and industry emphasized a shared mission: strengthening U.S. semiconductor leadership through collaboration and a robust innovation pipeline

Decision-Making Amid Uncertainty

Invited keynote speaker Cheryl Strauss Einhorn, Cornell Graduate, author and founder of Decisive, a decision sciences company, chose to address the audience through an informal interview/Q&A led by Prof. Judy Cha, Director of the CNF. It was an engaging conversation providing insight into complex problem solving and decision-making process.

IBM: Wafer Scale Semiconductor Lab to Fab Process Development and Prototyping

Dr. Dirk Pfeiffer, Director of IBM's Microelectronics Research Laboratory (MRL), was a plenary speaker at the CNF Annual Meeting. In his presentation, Dirk outlined MRL's core mission of accelerating semiconductor technologies from early-stage innovation to wafer-scale development and manufacturing, bringing concepts effectively from "lab to fab". Dirk highlighted the importance of academic partners like the CNF that remain vital for understanding emerging materials before they reach manufacturing.

Driving Innovation Through Community and Collaboration

The meeting also featured talks from Cornell researchers, including flying microrobots developed in Itai Cohen's lab, advances in assisted reproduction from Alireza Abbaspourrad's group, and new Creative Technologies for Teaching and Workforce Training led by Becky Laneat the Center for Teaching Innovation.

CNF Director Judy Cha presented the Nellie Whetten Award to Ph.D. student Yeryun Cheon recognizing the achievements of women in science, while a special panel of CNF staff introduced a new suite of tools. Attendees were able to ask questions and hear directly from CNF experts about the equipment and the expanded capabilities now available to the research community. Throughout the day, participants engaged with vendors and student posters featuring emerging work in nanofabrication, materials research, and device innovation.

Across presentations, one theme resonated: CNF's unique position as a national nanofabrication user facility for research, prototyping, product development, nanofabrication training, and cross-disciplinary discovery. As quantum and nanofabrication technologies continue to accelerate, CNF is helping to equip researchers, industry partners, and future engineers for the next wave of innovation.

The event was made possible with support from CNF's sponsors: AJA International, JEOL, Oxford Instruments, REYNOLDSTECH, Corning, 3C Technical, ASML, Edwards, EFC Gases and Advanced Materials, Evident, GenISys, Heidelberg Instruments, IEEE, Kurt J. Lesker, LAB 14, Lam Research, Pozzetta, Plasma-Therm, Samco, Semi, Tescan, Xallent, Applied Energy Systems, RedBarnHPC, C&D Semiconductor Services, The Cornell Store, and Wegmans.