Harold Craighead, the Charles W. Lake Jr. Professor of Engineering and professor of applied and engineering physics, has returned to the post of director of the Cornell Nanobiotechnology Center (NBTC).

Craighead was the first director when the center was created in January 2000. In June 2001, he was named interim dean of the College of Engineering, and Barbara Baird, professor of chemistry and chemical biology, became director of NBTC. After W. Kent Fuchs was named dean of the College of Engineering in March 2002, Craighead became co-director of the center.

NBTC is a National Science and Technology Center of the National Science Foundation, the only one of its kind in the nation, that applies the tools and processes of nano- and microfabrication to build devices that operate on the same scale as biological systems to advance research in molecular and cell biology. As the home of NBTC, Cornell leads a research consortium that includes Princeton University, Clark Atlanta University, the Wadsworth Center of the New York State Department of Health, Howard University and Oregon Health Sciences University.

"With the potential for in vivo measurement of nanostructures, nanoscience and technology could provide the methods leading to a revolution in understanding biological systems and new forms of biotechnology," Craighead said in a recent review of the field. "New understanding of life processes at the fundamental subcellular and molecular level will have a profound impact on medicine and on understanding of ecological interactions. There is hope for improved medical diagnosis and treatment and new types of chemical and biological sensors for environmental monitoring and defense."

Craighead received his B.S. in physics from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1974, and his Ph.D. in physics from Cornell in 1980. He joined the Cornell faculty in 1989. His research focuses on improving the techniques of nanofabrication and using nanostructures as tools in biological research. His research group has created devices that can detect and identify single bacteria and viruses, nanoscale gas sensors and nanofluidic devices that can separate, count and analyze individual DNA molecules.