“When we developed the near-field optical nanoimaging and nanospectroscopy tools, which we named s-SNOM and nano-FTIR, I never thought that they could have such wide application potential”, says Ikerbasque Research Professor Rainer Hillenbrand when asked about the evolution of his field of research. This week, from 6 to 9^th June, we welcome about 70 researchers eager to learn how to get the most out of the techniques, because San Sebastian hosts the Near-fiel Optical Nanoscopy Summer School, organized by CIC nanoGUNE, Ensemble 3 and Attocube.

The Basque nanoscience research center CIC nanoGUNE is developing specific techniques to functionalize fibers and fabrics in the textile industry. This promising line of research, led by the Nanomaterials group, is part of an Elkartek project in which the Gaiker technology center, which tests the final properties of the treated fabrics, and the textile company Andromeda Moto, which supplies the fabrics, are also participating.

An international team of scientists from the Basque research center CIC nanoGUNE, Shanghai University for Science and Technology, Fudan University (Shanghai), Brno University of Technology, University of the Basque Country, Materials Physics Center (CSIC-UPV/EHU), Donostia International Physics Center and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Dresden) has imaged and analyzed THz waves that propagate in form of plasmon polaritons along thin anisotropic semiconductor platelets with wavelengths reduced by up to 65 times compared to THz waves in free space. What´s even more intriguing is that the wavelengths vary with the direction of propagation. Such THz waves can be applied for probing fundamental material properties at the nanometer scale and pave the way to the development of ultra-compact on-chip THz devices. The work has been published in Nature Materials (DOI: 10.1038/s41563-023-01547-8).

CIC nanoGUNE is participating in the EU-funded NanoReMedi project which offers early stage researchers the opportunity to pursue an innovative research project in functional nano-scaffolds for regenerative medicine, within a joint doctorate educational training model.

Ikerbasque Research Professor Fèlix Casanova, co-leader of the Nanodevices group at nanoGUNE, has received the Intel Outstanding Researcher Award 2022 for his contributions to MESO technology, a technology that, ever since its inception, has taken the memory, interconnections and logic requirements of future computational needs into account. Casanova was recognized by Intel in the 2020 awards, so this is the second time that he has received this recognition, which dates back to 2012.

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded one of its prestigious ERC Advanced Grants to Ikerbasque Research Professor Nacho Pascual at CIC nanoGUNE. The three-million-euro grant will be devoted to running the CONSPIRA (Coherent control of spin chains in Graphene nanostructures) project for at least five years.

NanoGUNE has joined the Basque Microelectronics Hub (BMH) as a key player in the basque electronics industry to transfer our knowledge to the closest industrial fabric, in order to support the advances the sector requires in the Basque Country.

The fourth edition of the CIC nanoGUNE Winter School is inviting 25 students from various disciplines to get a closer look at research life. For three days, from Wednesday 8 to Friday 10 February 2023, the group of students will have the chance to immerse themselves in the daily life of the nanoGUNE research center of excellence, recognized by the National Research Council as a María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence.

CIC nanoGUNE has concluded a licensing agreement with Integra Therapeutics, a leading biotech company in next-generation gene writing, which entails the transfer of the exclusive operating rights of a technology that is the intellectual property of nanoGUNE. This particular license will allow ancestral CRISPR-Cas technology, which according to early research is more versatile than the currently existing variants, to be exploited.

The researcher Francesco Calavalle has been awarded the prize for best experimental PhD thesis by the Condensed Matter Physics Division (GEFES) of the Spanish Royal Physics Society (RSEF). The thesis “Probing and tuning the properties of van der Waals materials“ was worked on at CIC nanoGUNE, under the supervision of Ikerbasque Professor Luis Hueso.