From: Mark Allen, Director
March 16, 2020
To: The Singh Center Community
Penn has issued new guidance last night regarding conducting on-campus research in the wake of CoVID-19. Based on this guidance, the Singh Center for Nanotechnology has been instructed to cease operational services to its users.
1. The Singh Center will close to all users at 5pm on Tuesday, March 17.
2. Currently there is no scheduled date for reopening the Center to users; however, at this point users should consider a twelve-week hiatus as an estimate of closure time. We will do everything we can to shorten this time period; but the decision on re-opening depends on (1) the University administration’s assessment of the CoVID situation, as well as (2) the time necessary to bring back equipment from an idle state once the restart decision has been made. I would like to emphasize that this timeframe is an estimate and is subject to change.
3. A skeleton crew under the direction of Singh facilities managers will be tending and exercising the facility during the hiatus, with the goals of minimizing equipment degradation and restart time, ensuring facility and building safety, assisting in remote instruction in accordance with supporting remote laboratory courses, and other purposes approved by the Vice Provost for Research.
4. PIs with individual laboratories within the Singh Center will retain access for their group’s essential personnel maintaining and securing individual equipment within these labs, or other purposes approved by the Vice Provost for Research. All other facilities of the Singh Center, including the conference rooms, will be locked and inaccessible to reduce the sanitizing burden on housekeeping staff.
This is certainly not the note I wanted to share with our community; however, we must do what we can to accommodate our current circumstances. I ask again for your understanding during this time.
Mark G. Allen
Alfred Fitler Moore Professor and Director
Singh Center for Nanotechnology
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