In the highly controlled environment within the Cleanroom, the air is continuously filtered and the rooms’ inhabitants move around in ghostly blue body suits that prevent contamination. These extremes of cleanliness are necessary given that a single mote of dust would spell disaster for a device whose scale is less than a thousandth of a millimetre.  For such small devices any speck of dust, grit or fluff would be akin to dropping a wrecking ball on your home. The Cleanroom houses specialist research tools used by groups across the Faculties of Science and Engineering. Staff from departments as diverse as electronic engineering and plant life sciences spoke at the event to highlight the role the new facility will have in their research.

Professor Claire Grierson of BrisSynBio described the microfluidic devices unique to her group used for sorting and controlling individual cells which can only be made in the cleanroom and how this is empowering her international collaborations; Professor Mark Thompson of the Centre for Quantum Photonics highlighted the benefits to his cutting edge research in quantum technologies and the importance of being able to rapidly prototype new designs and ideas in photonics. Guest external speaker, Dr Ian Sturland of BAE Systems emphasised the applications of cleanroom technologies in modern industry. He noted that this University facility will help foster productive collaborations with industrial partners, as well as ensuring Bristol’s postgraduate students are trained in the state of the art tools used commercially.

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