The micrograph of a spider-like spin valve, obtained by staff scientist Felix Casanova from the Nanodevices Group, has been selected to illustrate the 2010 Calendar by Raith, supplier of state-of-the-art electron-beam lithography equipments.

For the purpose of building up a world-class Electron Microscopy facility, CIC nanoGUNE announces a recent agreement with FEI Company that includes the purchase of several high-end electron microscopes including TEM/STEM, Dual Beam FIB, and ESEM.

Dr. Andreas Berger, nanoGUNE´s research director, has been selected as an editorial board member of the Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, one of the world-wide leading journals on magnetism related research published by Elsevier. Starting from January 1st, 2010, he will serve a 3 year term in this capacity.

A joint team of researchers at CIC nanoGUNE (San Sebastian, Spain) and the Max-Planck-Institutes of Biochemistry and Plasma Physics (Munich, Germany) report the non-invasive and nanoscale resolved infrared mapping of strain fields in semiconductors.

On 18 November 2009, a special mention by the jury of the ninth Manuel Laborde Werlinden prize went to the Graphenea initiative presented by Jose M. Pitarke (Director of nanoGUNE and Professor of Condensed Matter Physics at the University of the Basque Country) for his business initiative on graphene, a two-dimensional nanoscale material exhibiting extraordinary electrical and mechanical properties.

The ATOM BY ATOM conference opened to the public via its plenary section for the purpose of disseminating, in a clear and accessible manner, nanoscience and nanotechnology.

The TNT high-level scientific meeting series aims to present a broad range of current research in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology as well as related policies (European Commission, etc.) or other kind of initiatives (nanoGUNE, FinNano, GDR-I, etc.).

Albert Fert (Unité Mixte de Physique NRS/Thales) Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the giant magnetoresistance effect, visited CIC nanoGUNE’s facilities and discussed about present and future collaborations.

On January 30 2009, the official opening of nanoGUNE was celebrated. The ceremony began at 11:00, followed by this series of speeches:

The progress article Spin routes in organic semiconductors written by Luis E. Hueso, leader of the CIC5 nanodevices group in nanoGUNE, together with V. Alek Dediu, Ilaria Bergenti & Carlo Taliani from the Institute for Nanostrucured Materials-CNR (Bologna, Italy), was published in Nature Materials on August 2009.