2016
November: Fabrice Piazza is invited to join CARIBMAT 2016 scientific committee and to give an invited talk during the conference.
October: PUCMM becomes the first university from the Dominican Republic to get a patent granted by USPTO thanks to NRL.
September: Germercy Paredes initiates her PhD in Material Sciences in CEMES, CNRS, Toulouse, France, under the supervision of Marc Monthioux and co-supervision of Fabrice Piazza.
Denia Cid, Ph.D. in Physics and Quantum Instrumentation from the University of Calabria, Italia, joins NRL as Research Associate
January: Arturo Hidalgo, Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from the University of Puerto Rico, joins NRL as Research Associate.
2015
November: A new 3 years-project is granted to NRL by 2015 FONDOCyT for RD $ 14,289,3012. The objective is to research on a new method to store hydrogen in graphene materials.
Fabrice Piazza travels to Santa Barbara for a STM training in Azylum Research.
Two NRL research assistants, Cristhofer Ozoria and Abraham Espinal, initiate the company Thermographene to produce and sell a water heater based on graphene in the Dominican Republic.
NRL collaborates with Zaira González on a new project to study the toxicity of carbon nanotubes coated with diamond and silicon carbide nanocrystals (2015 FONDOCyT project).
October:
French Ambassador in the Dominican Republic, Mr. José Gómez, visits NRL.
Germercy Paredes and Fabrice Piazza travel to Toulouse, France, to initiate a new collaboration with Marc Monthioux, CEMES, CNRS.
August:
NRL and INTEC Nanotechnology Laboratory sign a collaboration agreement.
2014
October: Piazza travels to Rochester to initiate the collaboration with Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).
September: NRL presents some research results at the International Conference on Diamond and Carbon Materials in Madrid. A bursary to attend the conference is awarded to Piazza from the Conference Chairs and Committee and the U.S. Office of Naval Research Global. A non-disclosure agreement is signed between PUCMM and Rochester Institute of Technology for research collaboration on Nanoscience.
August: NRL collaborates with a new proposal on biomedicine from the PUCMM Department of Basic Sciences. The proposal is submitted for funding to 2014 FONDOCyT Program.
June: two articles are published by the former President of the Dominican Republic, Dr. Leonel Fernández Reyna, in a national newspaper. According to Fernández Reyna, patent applications recently filed by PUCMM represent one of the two most important technological advances in the Dominican Republic in 2014.
March: NRL publishes a paper in Carbon (impact factor of 5.8). New results are obtained in NRL.
January 29: during a press conference, PUCMM Chancellor announces, together with the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology of the Dominican Republic, that PUCMM has filed several patent applications in U.S., Taiwan, and PCT countries, for an invention from NRL. This is the first time in the Dominican Republic that an academic institution files patent application.
2013
September: completion of UV upgrade of NRL Raman system (at 244 nm), for the detection with higher sensitivity of wide band gap nanostructures.
July: a scanning probe microscope, offering atomic lateral resolution, and including tunneling and nanolithography modes, is installed in NRL. This is the first time in the Dominican Republic that matter is observed at nanometer scale. Also, this is the first time that it is written at the nanoscale in the Dominican Republic, while the Dominican government is launching a plan to fight against analphabetism.
2012
November: a fifth research proposal from Piazza is accepted for funding by MESCyT from 2012 FONDOCyT Program for RD $11,998,201.
September: Germercy Paredes, who earned a Bachelor degree in Industrial Engineering from PUCMM and who is under contract in NRL since 2010 as research assistant, is enrolled in a Master Program in Micro- and Nano- systems in France.
August: a UV-ready Raman system with 488 nm excitation laser is installed in NRL. Together with three researchers from the Center for Nanoscale Materials of Argonne National Laboratory, the University of California at Riverside and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Piazza collaborates with the organization of the symposium on nanostructured carbon materials for MEMS/NEMS and nano electronics during theInternational Materials Research Congress organized by the Material Research Society and the Mexican Materials Society, in Cancun.
June: Piazza receives the title of Associate Professor from PUCMM.
May: some results from NRL are presented at the International New Diamond and Nano Carbons Conferencein San Juan, Puerto Rico.
April: a chemical vapor deposition system is installed in NRL for the synthesis of carbon nanotubes and graphene.
March: as a result of NRL activities, the Dominican Republic appears in ICPC NanoNet fourth annual report on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in the Caribbean region.
2011
November: a fourth research proposal from Piazza is accepted to be funded by MESCyT from 2010-2011 FONDOCyT Program for RD $ 10,977,920.
June: Piazza travels to UPR to characterize samples elaborated in PUCMM. Piazza publishes the chapter entitled Nanoscience and Nanotecnology in the Dominican Republic (in Spanish) in Perspective for the development of Nanotecnology in Latin American (in Spanish), Foladori, G; Záyago, E. & Invernizzi, N. (Coord.). (2011). México D.F: Miguel Ángel Porrúa / ReLANS.
April: Inter-American Development Bank (BID) and MESCyT representatives visit PUCMM and NRL.
2010
November 8: NRL is inaugurated by PUCMM Chancellor, together with the Vice-Minister of MESCyT and the Director of FONDOCyT. NRL is the first laboratory of this type in the Dominican Republic. An agreement is reached in PUCMM for research practices related to Piazza's FONDOCyT projects.
June: A hot-filament chemical vapor deposition system for the synthesis of nanostructured carbon materials is installed in NRL.
2009
October: Piazza moves to PUCMM-STI and founds the functional nano-structured carbon materials group (NANOCARBON). PUCMM decides to invest in the remodeling of a building to host a Nanoscience Research Laboratory (NRL) in Santiago campus.
June: invited by Piazza, Dr. Kuei-Hsien Chen from Academica Sinica and National Taiwan University, gives a talk during the International and Interdisciplinary Scientific Congress organized by MESCyT in Santo Domingo, and visits PUCMM-RSTA. Piazza and co-workers publish three research papers in two peer reviewed journals. Mrs. Martha Báez joins VII Office as Research Unit Coordinator in Santiago campus.
2008
November: two research proposals from Piazza are accepted to be funded by MESCyT from 2008 FONDOCyT Program, for RD $17,999,940.
May: Piazza gives three presentations at the New Diamond and Nano Carbons Conference in Taiwan. Some of Piazza's results are cited by Dr. Tsugawa, from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan, during his talk.
January-April: Piazza teaches an introductory course on Nanotechnology to Industrial Engineering students in PUCMM-STI (now CSTI) in Santiago.
2007
December: Piazza travels to Puerto Rico to carry-out some experiments in Prof. Gerardo Morell Research Laboratory, University of Puerto Rico, where he worked as Research Associate before joining PUCMM.
August-December: Piazza teaches an introductory course on Nanotechnology for engineering students in PUCMM-RSTA. A research proposal from Piazza is accepted to be funded by MESCyT from the 2007 FONDOCyT program for RD $ 4,699,424. Another proposal of Piazza is funded by PUCMM from PUCMM Call for research proposal. The Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology of the Dominican Republic raises maximum funding for a research proposal accepted to be funded from the FONDOCyT program.
2006
August: Fabrice Piazza joins PUCMM-RSTA (now CSTA) in Santo Domingo as Special Professor. The Vice-Chancellor’s Office for Research and Innovation (VII) is founded in the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra and Mrs. Sarah González is appointed Vice-Chancellor’s for Research and Innovation.
