UCL is among UK’s and world’s leading universities for teaching and research with 29 Nobel Prize laureates among its alumni. Located in the very centre of London, its campus hosts the London Centre for Nanotechnology, a highly multidisciplinary research centre housing state-of-the-art facilities and world-leading expertise in many areas of condensed matter and materials physics and nanotechnology.

The LCN (a joint venture between UCL, Imperial College London and King’s College London) occupies a purpose-built eight-storey facility in Gordon Street, Bloomsbury (opened in 2006) as well as extensive facilities within different departments at South Kensington and The Strand. The Centre’s experimental research is supported by leading edge modelling, visualisation and theory through its access to state-of-the-art cleanroom, characterisation, fabrication, manipulation and design laboratories.

The Centre has a unique operating model that accesses and focusses the combined skills of all three universities across several key departments: Chemistry, Physics, Materials, Medicine, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Biochemical and Biomedical Engineering and Earth Sciences. The LCN also has strong relationships with the broader nanotechnology and commercial communities and is involved in many major collaborations, nationally and internationally. As the world’s only such facility located in the heart of a metropolis, the Centre has superb access to corporate, investment and industrial partners. It is at the forefront of nanotechnology training and enjoys a strong media presence around educating the public and bringing transparency to this far-reaching and emerging science.