Noel C. MacDonald, professor of electrical engineering and the Lester B. Knight director of the Cornell Nanofabrication Facility, has been named to serve a two-year term as director of the Electronic Technology Office of the federal government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
MacDonald, on a leave of absence from Cornell as of Sept. 1, will be responsible for decisions about how DARPA funds research in electronic technologies, ranging from fiber optics to microwaves to his own field, nanotechnology.
"I think it's a real exciting opportunity to work on a national level," MacDonald said. "You really set the agenda for research for the two years you're there and probably a couple of years after that."
DARPA funds basic and applied research and development into technologies that may have military applications but is separate from the Pentagon, reporting directly to the office of the Secretary of Defense. It funds over $2 billion in research each year.
MacDonald came to Cornell in 1984 as professor of electrical engineering and served as director of the School of Electrical Engineering from 1989 to 1995, when he became director of the Cornell Nanofabrication Facility.
"Noel has done a superb job directing the center over the past two years, in particular in (attracting) significant new equipment to the facility to bring it to the state of the art in nanotechnology," said Norman R. Scott, Cornell vice president for research and advanced studies. "His own interests in MEMS is an extremely exciting and promising area which has provided major impetus to the center and which his new position will allow him to continue to promote at a national level. We regret his departure but also are pleased that he will have an opportunity to shape the future in this very important area."
The MEMS (MicroElectroMechanical Devices) program, which MacDonald launched, seeks to design and create "nanomachines" so small that they can only be seen with an electron microscope. Such machines might perform tasks like measuring the tensile strength of a cell wall or, someday, making repairs at the cellular level. Cornell's MEMS program is probably the largest research program in the country working on such devices, MacDonald said.
Alton H. Clark, associate director of the Nanofabrication Facility, is serving as interim director until a new director is named, Scott said. Clark, who previously was director of the Analytical and Applied Science Division of British Petroleum, also serves as an adjunct professor of materials science and engineering.