A planning meeting will be held to determine if a new multi-university Industry/University Cooperative Research Center Micro and Nano Filtration will be established at North Carolina State University and the University of Akron. The center will focus on the following goals: encompass different aspects of filtration from materials and large-scale nano/micro-fiber production to the modeling their structures and filtration performance, to the activation of the fiber surfaces to form self-decontamination properties; integrate existing technologies of mechanical air/liquid filters with those of chemically-active membranes; and engineer filter media for the separation of biological and chemical agents from a liquid stream.
The center will play a leadership role for the Filtration industry by stimulating high quality research and education, while developing a skilled workforce, and at the same time creating new jobs in the U.S. Filtration industry. The Center will also establish synergies between the related fiber and non-fiber industries, stimulate collaboration between the different disciplines associated with the filtration industry, and impact socially important problems in health, environment, worker safety; connections to homeland security issues.
