MIT.nano has announced that 11 companies have joined the facility’s consortium as founding members. Drawn from a variety of industries, the founding members are leaders in the development of systems, materials, and technologies for government, business, and consumers around the world.

Since MIT.nano’s official opening in October 2018, a significant effort has been underway to prepare the building’s facilities to support nanoscale researchers from departments, labs, and centers across the campus. The formation of the corporate consortium is an important step in this effort, says Vladimir Bulović, the founding faculty director of MIT.nano.

“Although our founding members come from different industries, they join MIT.nano in common cause: to harness the power of nanotechnology in service to humanity’s greatest challenges,” says Bulović, who is also the Fariborz Maseeh (1990) Chair in Emerging Technology. “We’re proud to have this group of visionary companies in the MIT.nano consortium. Their counsel, collaboration, and leadership will help MIT.nano fulfill its potential to build a better world.”

Companies that join the MIT.nano Consortium will help guide technical pursuits at MIT in two ways. First, their expertise in specific industries and global markets makes them invaluable advisors on real-world challenges and how to deliver solutions at scale. Second, as leading suppliers of advanced tools and processes for industry, research, and manufacturing, the member companies will be able to inform the selection of the tool sets and technologies that are installed in MIT.nano to support the interests of its users.

In return, the member companies benefit from an ongoing relationship with MIT.nano. A primary advantage is early awareness of innovative technologies emerging from MIT, such as through MIT.nano seminars and events. Members could translate this awareness into formal research collaborations with faculty, company-specific seminars, support for MIT startups, and other opportunities.

Member companies may also place an employee on campus as a visiting scientist, embedding this individual in a research group as an intellectual home to understand and explore MIT. And consortium members form natural and extensive connections to emerging MIT talent, enhancing their ability to attract and hire graduating students and postdoctoral associates.

Companies who joined the MIT.nano Consortium, or who began the conversation to do so, prior to January 2019 are recognized as founding members. MIT.nano is honored to recognize the following companies as founding members:

• Agilent Technologies , specializing in life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets. The company provides analytical, clinical, and academic laboratories worldwide with instruments, software, services, consumables, applications, expertise, and workflow solutions with a focus on six key market areas: food, environment and forensics, pharmaceutical, diagnostics, chemical and energy, and research.

• Analog Devices (ADI) is a provider of high-performance analog, mixed-signal, and digital signal processing solutions that bridge the physical and digital domains. More than 100,000 customers worldwide — across an array of industries including instrumentation, automation, communications, health care, and automotive domains — rely on ADI for its portfolio of products and technologies that sense, measure, power, connect, interpret, and secure.

• Dow , a materials science company with technology, asset integration, scale, and competitive capabilities that enable it to address complex global issues. Dow’s portfolio of performance materials, industrial intermediates, and plastics businesses deliver a range of differentiated technology-based products and solutions for customers in high-growth markets such as packaging, infrastructure, and consumer care.

• Draper , a not-for-profit engineering innovation company that focuses on the design, development, and deployment of advanced technological solutions, providing engineering expertise to government, industry, and academia in a myriad of domains including national security, strategic systems, commercial sectors, and space.

• DSM , a global purpose-led, science-based company active in nutrition, health, and sustainable living. DSM delivers innovative solutions for human nutrition, animal nutrition, personal care and aroma, medical devices, green products and applications, and new mobility and connectivity.

• Edwards , with a 100-year history specializing in the design, manufacture, and support of sophisticated vacuum system products, abatement solutions, and related services. Edwards products enable the discovery, development and manufacture of things that leverage the nanoscale, as well as a range of industrial processes, scientific instruments, and R ;D applications.

• IBM Research , one of the world’s largest corporate research labs with more than 3,000 researchers in 12 labs located across six continents. IBM Research pioneers promising and disruptive technologies that will transform industries and society, including the future of artificial intelligence, hybrid cloud, and quantum computing.

• Lam Research , an enabler of the semiconductor industry whose wafer fabrication equipment and services allow chipmakers to build smaller, faster, and better-performing electronic devices. Today, nearly every advanced chip is built with Lam technology.

• NCSOFT , one of the largest gaming companies in the world and creator of many of the most prominent multiplayer online video games to date. It engages hundreds of millions of players daily, worldwide, with an extensive portfolio of game franchises such as Lineage, AION, Blade ; Soul, and Guild Wars.

• NEC , a global provider of information and communications technology services, integrating IT and network technologies for industry, government, and individual customers through innovative software, applications, development tools, and services.

• Waters , a specialty measurement company, has pioneered chromatography, mass spectrometry, and thermal analysis innovations serving the life, materials, and food sciences for more than 60 years.

“MIT.nano will continue to welcome new companies and other organizations to the consortium, fulfilling its mission to search for a broader understanding of the most pressing issues our community of researchers and discoverers should address,” says Bulović. “Engagement, advice, and collaboration with industry leaders boost MIT.nano's ability to deliver the most pertinent solutions to the world."

For more details, visit the MIT.nano Consortium page.