INRS to get new nanotech labs
Professors Tiago Falk and Fiorenzo Vetrone of INRS (Energy, Materials, and Telecommunications Centre) will soon have new facilities available for exploring the world of neurotechnology and nanobiophotonics. Together, their grants from the Canada Foundation for Innovation/Leaders Opportunity Fund and Ministère de l'Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport du Québec add up to over $800,000 to support their research in emerging fields with a high potential of yielding future innovations in the fields of health and information and communications technology.
Multimedia/Multimodal Signal Analysis and Enhancement (MuSAE) Lab
(Total funding: $474,227)
Dr. Falk will use the new multimodal, integrated, and portable research equipment to further our understanding of how the brain reacts to audiovisual stimuli, seeking pathways to a new generation of multimedia communications technology. His research is also aimed at developing intelligent human-computer interfaces that adapt to their users' moods, mental health, and environment. This research could lead to a multitude of applications in the health field, such as devices to help people with disabilities.
Luminescence of Multiphoton-Excited Nanomaterials (LUMEN) Lab
(Total funding: $640,885)
This new lab will help Dr. Vetrone acquire new knowledge about luminescent nanoparticles and better understand the behaviour of these highly functional nanomaterials. It will support an ambitious research program at the frontier of nanoscience, photonics, and biology. Dr. Vetrone and his team study how to control light in order ultimately to design smart nanoplatforms that can target, diagnose, and treat diseases such as cancer more quickly and effectively than conventional techniques.
"These new labs will facilitate strategic research in INRS's priority areas, specifically telecommunications, nanotechnology, and health," said INRS scientific director Alain Fournier. "What's more, these world-class facilities will be an incomparable setting not just for research, but also for training highly qualified researchers in these cutting edge fields."
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About INRS
Institut national de recherche scientifique (INRS) is research intensive university which offers graduate level training. It ranks first in Canada for research intensity (average grant funding per faculty member). INRS brings together some 150 professors and close to 700 students and postdoctoral fellows at its four centres in Montreal, Quebec City, Laval, and Varennes. Its applied and fundamental research is essential to the advancement of science in Quebec and internationally, even as it plays a key role in the development of concrete solutions to the problems faced by our society.
Provided by INRS
