Ten years ago fire ripped through the University of Southampton’s Mountbatten Building gutting the building and destroying valuable equipment and research.
A decade later and the award-winning Mountbatten Building successor now provides £120m of specialist facilities and equipment, enabling world-leading researchers to continue their pioneering work tackling many of the key challenges facing society today.
The new Zepler Institute cleanroom complex houses a suite of research facilities. Home to the UK’s best set of nanoelectronics and photonics fabrication capabilities, including the Southampton Nanofabrication Centre, the complex is driving forward some of the most innovative explorations in optics and nanotechnology research.
Professor Nick Jennings, Head of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), said: 'The fire which destroyed the old microfabrication cleanroom gave us the opportunity to create a facility which is unique and internationally leading as a place to research and develop the next generation of electronics and multidisciplinary applications.
'The Southampton Nanofabrication Centre cleanroom facility is both grounded in existing state-of-the-art nanofabrication technology and exploring the next generation of fabrication methods, materials and devices. Research in the facility covers the creation and characterisation of nano-electronic devices, functional materials and nanophotonics, spintronics, quantum and memristive devices, bio-inspired devices, microfluidics and Lab-on-a-Chip systems, and NEMS devices.'
