Yale Alumnus Named Associate Director for Research Facilities at YINQE
Yale alumnus Michael J. Rooks joined the Yale Institute of Nanoscience and Quantum Engineering (YINQE) on Oct. 1 as associate director for research facilities.
In his new post, Rooks will be responsible for working with Yale faculty in the planning, acquisition and operation of YINQE shared research facilities.
The main mission of YINQE is to develop collaborations centered on nanoscale research projects among researchers from a wide variety of scientific disciplines in order to make substantial advances in understanding and technology. Central to fulfilling this mission will be significant investment in shared research facilities accessible to YINQE affiliated faculty, their students and collaborators.
“Easy access to major research facilities is as important as our joint seminars and symposia and the funding of collaborative ‘SEED’ research projects in realizing the YINQE vision,” said the center’s director, Paul Fleury. “We are fortunate indeed in attracting to this enterprise someone of Dr. Rooks’ energy, experience and enthusiasm.”
Rooks brings to Yale years of research in micro and nanotechnology materials and processes. He has worked in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Labs, and the Cornell Nanofabrication Facility, and had a decade-long affiliation with the IBM Watson Research Center, where he is currently a research staff member. An expert in e-beam lithography, electron microscopy, processing software design and many other related fields, he has over two dozen patents and patent disclosures and has co-authored well over 100 publications.
Rooks received his Ph.D. from Yale in applied physics in 1987. At Yale, he will also hold the position of senior research scientist in the Department of Applied Physics. Daniel Prober, chair of that department, said, “Mike was an outstanding researcher in his graduate work. He has since established some of the finest nanopatterning facilities and research collaborations in the world. He is a truly wonderful collaborator. We are very excited that he has accepted this position.”
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