"Preaching the gospel" of using nanotechnology to advance medical science continues to inspire George Malliaras, director of the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility (CNF) in Duffield Hall.

Appointed to that position in August 2006, Malliaras looked back on a year of heading the nationally recognized, constantly evolving nanofabrication and research facility in a recent interview.

Beyond the major planning efforts behind this week's CNF 30th anniversary celebration, Malliaras, in partnership with operations director Don Tennant, has spent the year leading efforts to engage new users -- both academics and industry experts -- and keeping CNF's equipment inventory as cutting-edge as possible.

Nanotechnology originated in physical sciences and engineering, but is quickly moving into other fields, such as biology and medicine, Malliaras said.

The most rapidly expanding group of users at CNF -- which currently number about 700 -- are biologists. An expert in organic semiconductor materials, Malliaras makes fostering ties between CNF and the medical communities a high priority.

"We need to educate them and ourselves as to what they might need and bring it to the facility," said Malliaras, who has been a member of the Cornell engineering faculty since 1998. Some of those efforts have involved presentations at Weill Cornell Medical College, understanding the vision of the National Science Foundation -- CNF's primary funding source -- regarding nanomedicine, and bringing in experts to speak on the topic, he said.

In keeping with those goals, a major part of CNF's 30th anniversary celebration, June 14, will deal with nanotechnology in medicine.