Research efforts in the Department are centered on nanoscale science and technology with a focus on the bottom-up paradigm. The aim of the interdisciplinary research at the interface between physics, chemistry and biology is to gain control of materials at the atomic and molecular level, enabling the design of systems and devices with properties determined by quantum behavior on one hand and approaching functionalities of living matter on the other hand. Of particular interest are self-ordering strategies for bottom-up fabrication and assembly, nanoscience for sustainable energy, quantum electronic transport and local probe microscopy and spectroscopy at the atomic scale.