The Montana Nanotechnology Facility (MONT) at Montana State University offers researchers from academia, government and industry access to facilities with leading-edge fabrication and characterization tools, instrumentation and expertise within many disciplines of nanoscale science, engineering and technology. The MONT Facility at MSU includes the Montana Microfabrication Facility (MMF), the Imaging and Chemical Analysis Laboratory (ICAL), the Center for Biofilm Engineering (CBE), the Mass Spectroscopy Facility (Mass Spec) and the Center for Bio-Inspired Nanomaterials (CBIN).

The Montana Microfabrication Facility comprises class 1000 and 10,000 cleanrooms for lithography, oxidation/anneal, etching, PVD, general chemical processing, inspection, packaging and test instruments.

The Imaging and Chemical Analysis Laboratory offers high-resolution imaging with SEM, FESEM and AFM tools, and a variety of spectroscopies for both surface and bulk analysis.

The Center for Biofilm Engineering offers users access to reactors to culture biofilms and a variety of cell lines on nanostructured substrates, and advanced confocal and fluorescence imaging for characterization.

The Mass Spectroscopy Facility provides full spectrum analysis with access to instruments with GCMS, MALDI-TOF, ESI-QTOF, and ESI-IonTrap configurations, with experience coupling its analysis tools to experimental microfluidics devices.

The Center for Bio-Inspired Nanomaterials specializes in virus-like nanoparticle growth and characterization, and offers users access to high temperature fermenters and a transmission electron microscope.

Education and outreach activities are central to the MONT mission to promote use of the facility by students, faculty, and visiting scholars, and to increase awareness about nanotechnology by the general public. On-site training is provided for all users of the facilities. We also offer hands-on courses for K-12 teachers as part of a Master’s of Science in Science Education degree, workshops for industrial users, and webinars on methods and applications of nanotechnology. With our partner Carleton College’s Science Education Resource Center (SERC), we are creating a broad array of learning and teaching resources centered on nanotechnology.