Bashir to direct Micro and Nanotechnology Lab

Rashid Bashir, formerly a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University, has been named the new director of the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory (MNTL), pending approval of the Board of Trustees. Bashir will hold a Bliss Professorship, with appointments in ECE and the Department of Bioengineering.

"Professor Bashir has considerable experience in micoelectromechanical and micro-fabrication research, and over the past five to six years his work has moved into the area of bionanotechology" explained Ilesanmi Adesida, dean of the College of Engineering. "That experience makes him a great leader for the MNTL.

"With the expansion of the Micro and Nanotechnology Lab, we now have an integrative environment that will support a new era of collaborative research - both within this college and University, as well as other institutions as we explore new areas of nanotechnology," Adesida added.

"I am very pleased to join the University of Illinois and the MNTL," Bashir said. "The faculty affiliated with MNTL have made legendary contributions to microelectronics, optoelectronics, and related fields. I look forward to working with the faculty, staff, and nanotechnology researchers at Illinois and build interdisciplinary bridges across campus and beyond in the area of micro and nanotechnology."

In addition to his appointment in electrical and computer engineering at Purdue, Bashir was also the Courtesy Professor of Biomedical Engineering. He has authored or co-authored over 140 journal and conference papers, over 50 invited talks, and has been granted 29 patents in the areas of microelectronics, micro-fabrication, and microelectromechanical (MEMS). His research interests include biomedical microelectromechanical systems (BioMEMS), MEMS, nano-biotechnology, and applications of semiconductor fabrication to biomedical engineering, all applied to solve biomedical problems.

In 2000, Bashir received the NSF Career Award for his work in Biosensors and BioMEMS. He received the Joel and Spira Outstanding Teaching award from the School of ECE at Purdue University, and the Technology Translation Award from the 2001 BioMEMS and Nanobiotechnology World Congress Meeting in Columbus, OH. He was selected by the National Academy of Engineering to attend the Frontiers in Engineering Workshop in Fall 2003. He was also a finalist in the Small Times magazine "2005 Innovator of the Year Award."

Bashir earned his BSEE summa cum laude from Texas Tech University in Lubbock and his MSEE and PhD degrees from Purdue. Before joining the Purdue faculty in 1998, he was a senior engineering manager in the Process Technology Development Group at National Semiconductor.

The Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory at Illinois is one of the nation’s largest and most sophisticated university-based facilities--a multidisciplinary research facility in the College of Engineering that houses advanced equipment to support research in photonics, microelectronics, nanotechnology, and biotechnology. Current research activities facilitated by the MNTL can be divided into four areas: optoelectronics and photonic systems, microelectronics for wireless communications, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and nanobiosystems.

MNTL contains over 8,000 sq. ft. of class 100 and class 1000 clean room laboratory and state-of-the-art ultra-high-speed optical and electrical device and circuit measurements. It currently houses the DARPA-funded Center for Bio-Optoelectronic Sensors and Systems. The laboratory is a user facility that is available for use by university and industrial personnel from across the nation.