On July 3rd, planet Earth reached aphelion, the farthest point in its elliptical orbit around the Sun. Each year, this day of the most distant Sun happens to occur during winter in the southern hemisphere. That's where this aphelion sunrise from 2015 was captured in a time series composite against the skyline of Brisbane, Australia. Of course, seasons for our fair planet are not determined by distance to the Sun, but by the tilt of Earth's rotational axis with respect to the ecliptic, the plane of its orbit. Fondly known as the obliquity of the ecliptic, the angle of the tilt is about 23.4 degrees from perpendicular to the orbital plane. So the most distant sunrise occurs during northern summer, when the planet's north pole is tilted toward the Sun and the north enjoys longer, warmer days.
Graphenea, an SME leader in graphene production, is currently looking for a talented
who is interested in performing a PhD thesis in the field of
Graphenea, located in San Sebastian, Basque Country (Spain), has been created with the mission of developing graphene-based process and product technology, as well as conducting related research activities. Graphenea has laboratories at Miramon Technology Park and CIC nanoGUNE where it has access to nanoGUNE’s state-of-the-art characterisation and nanofabrication research infrastructure.
The position holder, working closely with Graphenea’s scientific director and the research team, will conduct research activities related to h-BN growth, characterisation and graphene/h-BN heterostructure fabrication in order to obtain high mobility graphene.
The position requires a completed Master’s degree in Chemistry, Physics, and/or Materials Science. Candidates should have experience in the preparation and/or characterisation of graphene or related 2D materials. The fabrication of graphene devices with a preferred expertise in graphene electronics will be taken into consideration. Experience in AFM, SEM, TEM, thin film deposition and related techniques will also be valued. Proficiency in spoken and written English is compulsory.
The recruited predoctoral researcher will work in a project funded by the European H2020 Framework program, Marie Curie Innovative Training Networks Program in a project called QuESTech: Quantum Electronics Science and TECHnology training. This project involves a close collaboration with leading academics and industrial partners across Europe. Note that standard Marie Curie mobility rules apply (researcher must not have resided in Spain for more than 12 months in the last 3 years). The recruited predoc should have less than 4 years research experience after completing his/her degree. The contract should start no later than the 1st of June 2018 and will last for 3 years.
Applicants should send their CV together with a cover letter explaining his/her interest in the position and at least two reference letters to: jobs@graphenea.com
Graphenea announces the opening of a new cleanroom at its premises in San Sebastian, Spain. The Class 1000 cleanroom, installed in March this year, is up and running and the company’s products are now being processed in the cleanroom environment.
The exceptional conditions in the new cleanroom are expected to lead to higher quality and reproducibility of the graphene. In addition, a smaller contaminant particle density will result in higher yield and less impurities for better carrier mobility and smaller unintentional doping, making Graphenea CVD graphene even more attractive for electronic, optical, and other applications.
The installation of the cleanroom and its controlled environment will allow products compatible with strict production and quality regulations, which are a requirement for semiconductor, pharmaceutical, and other high-tech industries. Graphenea has now become the first graphene company to offer compliance with such regulations.
The cleanroom will house 4”, 6” and 8” wafer CVD graphene production lines, with integrated in-line quality control. Hence, the new cleanroom is a true high-quality, regulated graphene factory, able to supply materials directly compatible with industry needs.
Graphenea’s intense collaboration with academic researchers will benefit from this new development as well, because the company’s patented graphene transfer method and apparatus is now installed in a more controlled environment. Many of the company’s customers and scientific collaborators rely on Graphenea transferring their CVD films onto custom substrates.
The installation marks a new era for Graphenea, a true global leader in graphene production.
About Graphenea
Graphenea, a leading graphene producer venture backed by Repsol, was established in 2010, and has since grown to be one of the world's largest providers of graphene. The company is headquartered at the nanotechnology cluster CIC nanoGune in San Sebastian, Spain and the MIT campus in Cambridge, Boston, MA. Graphenea employs 25 people and exports graphene materials to more than 600 customers in 55 countries. The company has focused on constant improvement of graphene quality, becoming a supplier customers can rely on. Graphenea employs a team of skilled laboratory staff who have brought graphene production techniques to a new level. The company produces CVD graphene wafers and graphene oxide. Graphenea partners with large multinationals to develop custom graphene materials for their applications. Its research agility and ability to keep pace with the progress of graphene science and technology has allowed Graphenea to become a core partner in the Graphene Flagship, a ten year project of the European Commission worth a billion euros. The company keeps a close relation with the world's leading scientists, regularly publishing scientific articles of the highest level and holds a strong patent portfolio.
Vojislav Šuc, Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia to the United Nations Office and other international organisations in Geneva, gives the official letter of notification to Fabiola Gianotti, CERN Director general. (Image: Maximilien Brice/CERN)
Today, the Republic of Slovenia becomes an Associate Member in the pre-stage to Membership at CERN1. This follows official notification to CERN that the Republic of Slovenia has completed its internal approval procedures as required for the entry into force of the Agreement, signed in December 2016, granting that status to the country.
Slovenia has a tradition of cooperation of several decades with CERN. Slovenian physicists contributed to the CERN programme long before Slovenia became an independent state in 1991, participating in an experiment at LEAR (the Low Energy Antiproton Ring) and on the DELPHI experiment – part of CERN’s previous large accelerator, the Large Electron Positron collider (LEP). In 1991, CERN and the Executive Council of the Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia concluded a Co-operation Agreement concerning the further development of scientific and technical co-operation in the research projects of CERN. In 2009, Slovenia applied to become a Member State of CERN.
For the past 20 years, Slovenian physicists have been participating in the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, from research and development, through construction and commissioning, to harvesting the physics results. Their focus has been on silicon tracking, protection devices and computing at the Slovenian TIER-2 data centre. They remain committed to the tracker upgrade, making use of the research reactor in Ljubljana for neutron irradiation studies.
Slovenia is joining Cyprus and Serbia as an Associate Member State in the pre-stage to Membership of CERN. After a period of five years, Council will decide on the admission of Slovenia to full Membership.
