MONT News

The National Science Foundation’s Division of Materials Research and EPSCoR program have awarded $833,000 for a new X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy system to ICAL. This new instrument will restore the small-spot elemental and chemical surface analysis capability lost when the former, 25-year old XPS spectrometer became irreparable in 2020. Click here to read the MSU News article. November 2025

The MMF  received a $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration through its Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs program. The funding will support current and new Montana Microfabrication Facility customers to rapidly develop, assemble and test photonic integrated circuits. Click here to read the MSU News article. October 2025

Dr. Bill Inskeep, Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, along with other MSU faculty, has published an article in Nature Communications with new insights on how ancient microorganisms adapted from a low-oxygen environment an aerobic environment. Inskeep used MONT’s ICAL facility for electron microscopy and elemental analysis. Click here to read the MSU News article. February 2025

Experiments conducted at Montana State University in collaboration with Columbia University and the Honda Research Institute have resulted in the emission of single photons of light in a new type of quantum material — a feat that could lead to the development of controllable light sources for use in quantum technologies. Click here to read the MSU News article. January 2025

Dr. Madison Myers, Department of Earth Sciences, was awarded a NSF grant to study the Okmok volcano on Umnak Island in the Aleutian Islands, in collaboration with Dr. Anita Moore-Nall for the department of Native American Studies. Okmok erupts fairly frequently but with as little as four to five hours of warning. Because its eruptions are not preceded by strong warning signals, such as earthquakes, a goal of the MSU study is to improve scientists’ ability to forecast imminent volcanic events to reduce risks to humans and property. Click here to read the MSU News article. November 2024

The Nature paper, titled “A virally-encoded tRNA neutralizes the PARIS antiviral defense system,” was fast-tracked for publication by the journal due to the importance of the findings. MSU doctoral student Nate Burman is the lead author, along with Professor Blake Wiedenheft, six other MSU scientists and collaborators from France, Russia and Sweden. The research explores the PARIS immune system, which bacteria use to protect themselves against viral infections. One of the crucial new findings in the paper is the first complete image of what the PARIS system looks like. To generate that image, Burman used MSU’s cryo-EM, part of the MONT suite of tools. Click here to read the MSU News article. August 2024

Dr. Chelsea Heveran, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, received an NSF CAREER award for a project called, “Osteocyte Regulation of Bone Tissue Fracture Resistance.” The project goal is to advance fundamental knowledge about how osteocytes manage, heal and help repair bone tissue, and for improving diagnostics and therapies for bone fracture. Click here to read the MSU News Article. April 2024

Recipient Amberly Guerrero (left) works in MSU’s temperature corrosion laboratory under principal investigator and MONT user Paul Gannon. Amanda Haab (rignt) spent her first two years exploring antimicrobial ceramics and is now in the lab of MONT co PI Phil Stewart. Both students are ICAL users. Click here to read the MSU News Article. March 2024

Dr. Anja Kunze, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was featured in MSU’s quarterly publication, Mountains and Minds. Kunze’s work is focused on understanding what happens when the brain’s neural networks break down due to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Kunze’s team uses MONT’s MMF to etch and deposit thin films on glass. Kunze and her team have shown they can also use magnetic nanoparticles to shape neuron growth. Click here to read the Mountains an Minds article. October 2023

The work of Cryo-EM and TEM facility users Artem Nemudryi and Anna Nemudraia is illustrated on the cover of the September 2023 issue of Science Advances. The post docs are lead authors on the paper “CRISPR-based engineering of RNA viruses” which highlights using CRISPR to precisely cut and repair RNA without converting the RNA to DNA and back to RNA. Nemudryi also received an NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Pathway to Independence Award. Read the MSU News Article Here. September 2023

Andrew Santiago-Frangos, a postdoctoral fellow, is the lead author on a new paper, which appeared in the journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology this September. "Structure reveals why genome folding is necessary for site-specific integration of foreign DNA into CRISPR arrays” explains how CRISPR systems record exposures to viral infections. Santiago-Frangos and team used a the new Cryo-EM Facility to take photographs of these changes in real time which helped determine the three-dimensional structure that explains how the DNA is bent and inserted into the CRISPR. Click here for the MSU News article. September 2023

MONT hosted the 2023 NNCI REU Convocation in August. The largest cohort of attendees (87 undergraduate students) from 13 of the 16 NNCI sites gathered in Bozeman, Montana to share their research experiences; each student presented a talk and poster. Students were able to connect with several MONT researchers in areas including neuro engineering and quantum devices. There was a plenary session devoted to science communication for varying audiences and a panel of MONT user entrepreneurs to help inspire and guide students in entrepreneurial workforce endeavors.

MONT hosted 35 students from the Salish Kootenai Community College's Upward Bound Program. Students spent two days on campus learning about nanotechnology and college life. The camp included a trip to Yellowstone National Parkmaking connections with the natural world and nanoscience. August 2023

The Northwest Nanotechnology Laboratory Alliance (NWNLA), a joint NNCI initiative with the Northwest Nanotechnology Infrastructure (NNI) at the University of Washington. MONT and NNI hosted the first in-person meeting at the University of Washington in August 2023 (after a virtual meeting hosted by MONT in 2021). The NWNLA hosted over fifty attendees from universities, government institutions, small companies, and equipment manufacturers over the two days. August 2023

Manufacturing, repairing, and re-using biomineralized infrastructure materials through low-energy biological processes project envisions more sustainable, eco-manufacturing of building materials through leveraging the natural metabolic activities of microorganisms. The manufacturing of building and infrastructure materials currently heavily relies on cement and concrete with large resource needs and limited re-use and recycling of cement and concrete. The specific goal is to improve the ability to make complex, load-bearing structures through microbial biomineralization. ICAL and CBE facilities will support this work. 2023

MONT faculty user Dr. Stephan Warnat has received a $500,000 award from the USDA todevelop innovative sensor networks to monitor microbes that accumulate in equipment used to harvest maple sap and which are known to degrade the taste of finished products. The sensors were developed in part in MMF by mechanical engineering doctoral student Matthew McGlennen. Click here to read the MSU News article. October 2022

Gerlach’s work focuses on exploring ways to optimize the use of algae combined with other microbes for making biofuel and other products. Click here to read the MSU News article. January 2022

Dr. Cecily Ryan received a $700,000 NSF grant to advance 3D printing so it could be used to produce a range of innovative materials that incorporate biological and biodegradable components. Dr. Ryan's team uses ICAL to support this work. Click here to read the MSU News article. April 2022

Dr. Yaofa Li received an NSF CAREER award. Li’s award centers on cooling supercomputers which require significant cooling to keep them functioning. Li’s team will use MONT’s MMF to create devices that can measure the velocity and temperature of evaporating liquid samples at very high resolution.  Li has been the recipient of MONT User Grants that helped kick-start this line of inquiry. Click here to read the MSU News article.   April 2022

Graduate student George Schaible’s correlative microscopy image is the cover of the 2022 volumes of The ISME Journal, the premier journal in microbial ecology.  The image was generated in ICAL and used FEM, SEM, EDX, and Raman. The image reveals distinct properties of obligate multicellular magnetotactic bacterial from salt marsh sediment. Schaible is also a MONT user grant recipient.

Drs. Chelsea Heveran and Louis Cox, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, received a $700,000 NSF grant to take the closest look yet at the bone surrounding osteocyte cells. These cells may play a central role in remodeling bone over a person's lifetime. With the help of MONT’s ICAL lab and the AFM, the group has mapped the structure of individual cells in tiny cross-sections of rodent bone.  Click here for the MSU News article. (December 2021)

Dr. Nicholas Stadie is part of an overall $10M effort involving several other universities, national labs and industrial partners that will develop and test lithium-ion batteries that use a specialized ceramic material in place of a plastic membrane and liquid electrolyte that are prone to damage and fire. Click here for the MSU News article.  (January 2021)

Michael Espinal, a MONT Empower Scholars recipient, is preparing to take his enthusiasm for research to the next level. “Getting involved wihas been pretty life-changing,” said Espinal, who grew up in Vacaville, California, an hour’s drive inland from San Francisco, and was drawn to MSU for its outdoor setting and friendly community. “It has really opened a lot of doors for me.” Dec. 2021 Click here to read the complete MSU News article here.

MONT reserachers found that plastic treated with bacteria could be added to concrete in significant quantities without compromising the structural material's strength. The MSU team found that using bacteria to coat the plastic with a thin mineral layer allowed it to bind better with the cement. Concrete samples containing up to 5% of the bacteria-treated plastic had virtually the same strength as traditional concrete.  Read the complete MSU News article here.

MONT facilites and reserach will be enhanced by the addition of the MonArk Quantum Foundry. MSU and the University of Arkansas will establish the MonArk Quantum Foundry with a recent $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation that seeks to accelerate the development of quantum materials and devices. Read more of the MSU News article here. September 2021

The U.S. Department of Energy announced this week more than $22 million in funding focused on energy research, $3.4 million of which will fund continuing research at Montana State University into microorganisms that display the ability to extract important and useful metals from pyrite, an abundant mineral in the Earth’s crust. Read more of the MSU News article here. September 2021

Thanks to an innovative piece of technology, researchers at Montana State University are now able to conduct scientific exploration at a whole new level — a very, very small one. Read more of the MSU News article here June 2021. 

A new grant from the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust will support ongoing efforts by Montana State University to significantly upgrade microscopy equipment, fostering world-class biofilm research aimed at, among other things, preventing metal corrosion, treating life-threatening infections and stopping leaks in oil and gas wells. Read more of the MSU News article here April 2021

Dilpreet Bajwa, professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, is studying how to inject cellulose nanocrystals into tiny air pockets in wood to improve the material's strength and consistency. Read more of the MSU News article about Dilpreet Bajwa here March 2021

David Dickensheets, Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and founding director of MONT, won the Charles and Nora L. Wiley Award for Meritorious Research and Creativity. He will recieve a 2,000$ honorarium for the contributions his research has done for improving optical technology. In the field of microfabrication, he is considered a international leader and pioneer in optical devices. Read more of the MSU News article about David Dickensheets here February 2021

Stephanie McCalla, an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, has recieved the Vice President for Research Meritorious Technology/Science Award. Her research in biochemical reactions has allowed for earlier detection of cancer or dramatic brain injury before symptoms begin to emerge. Read more of the MSU News article about Stephanie McCalla here February 2021

The team, led by MONT researcher Connie Chang, will work on validating the LAMP testing method, a rapid test that could complement the standard nasal swab COVID-19 test.Read the MSU News article about the LAMP testing method here October 2020

The five-year funding renewal for the Montana Nanotechnology Facility by the NSF ensures the MSU facility can provide cutting-edge equipment and technical assistance for research and development. Read the MSU News article about the NSF grant here. September 2020

Continuing a research interest that began while studying microbes in Yellowstone National Park's hot springs as an undergraduate, and now backed by a prestigious NASA grant, Montana State University graduate student George Schaible will investigate unique bacteria that could provide insights into how multicellular life evolved. Read the MSU News article about George Schaible here. July 2020

A team led by Stephan Warnat, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering in MSU's Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering, has developed a new method of using 3D printing. This method can make devices for microfluidics, which involves manipulating very small volumes of liquid to measure water quality or study microorganisms. Read the MSU News article about Stephen Warnat here. June 2020

Under a $10.5 million Air Force contract awarded in September and made possible by a new Montana State University research facility, MSU researchers will assist local high-tech company S2 Corp. with developing next-generation optics technology. Read more of the MSU News article here December 2019

Khan is becoming a capable researcher and contributing significantly to progress in the Kunze lab. MONT supported Khan's trip to Cornell Univeristy to attend the 2019 REU NNCI Convocation. Read the MSU News article about Khan here. November 2019

Dave Mogk, professor of earth sciences and MONT PI, has co-authored a review article published in Science. The article, “Natural, Incidental and Engineered Nanomaterials and Their Impacts on the Earth System,” details three types of nanomaterials present in Earth's system and their impact on the environment and humans. Read the MSU News Service article here.Connect to the full Science article here.Access the companion educational materials here. May 2019

Dr. Anja Kunze, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,  has won a prestigious NSF CAREER grant. Kunze is investigating how magnetic forces precisely applied to brain cells may lead to advances in treatments for degenerative brain conditions.Read the MSU News article about Dr. Kunze here. March 2019

Tianbo Liu, a PhD candidate the Dickensheets research group, has a paper featured in the current Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems. The paper demonstrates a micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) beam scanner capable of biaxial scanning with simultaneous focus control, for integration into a handheld confocal microscope for skin imaging. This instrument presents the possiblitly of non-invasive cell imaging and elimiates the need for painful and costly biopsies. Read Tianbo's paper here. June 2018

Connie B. Chang, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering recently received the National Science Foundation's Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award for her research on assembling and studying biofilms. Read the MSU Article about Connie here.  June 2018

To support the diverse, active and relevant lines of discovery and learning at MSU, the MJ Murdock Charitable Trust has awarded the Montana Nanotechnology Facility a grant to expand the facility to include soft-lithography and enhanced thin films capabilities. Enhanced capability for deposition of thin films is needed especially by researchers working in nano-bio-systems and energy, and will be broadly used by our nanotech community. 2017