Posted: 16 September 2022
The University of California (UC) Berkeley teaching and
research laboratories are among the most active, innovative and productive in
the US. Berkeley Mechanical Engineering
is the top ranked public mechanical engineering program in the country and consistently
categorised as one of the top ranked departments worldwide. Their research work covers the spectrum from
molecular to global, from nano-scale devices and processes to ocean engineering
and atmospheric phenomena.
Dr. Lydia Sohn is Chancellor’s Professor within the
department of Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley and a core member of
UCSF-UC Berkeley Joint Graduate Program in Bioengineering. Highly recognised and experienced, prior to
joining Berkeley she is a graduate of Harvard University and was a member of
the Physics faculty at Princeton University. Dr. Sohn is the recipient of
several prestigious awards for her research which includes being honoured at
the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy for the development of
label-free method Node Pore Sensing (NPS) which was named as one of the five
“Revolutionary Platform Technologies for Advancing Life Sciences Research” in a
competition sponsored by six major foundations.
Dr. Sohn’s lab focuses on two major themes; cancer and
stem-cell biology. For cancer they are developing and employing quantitative,
label-free techniques to isolate, screen and identify cells for
biomedical-research and for clinical diagnostic and monitoring applications.
For stem-cell biology, they are developing lab-on-a-chip systems that would
enable study of stem cells in their specialised niche.
Dr. Sohn purchased the ATC chiller which is used to cool an
electron beam gun in a thin film evaporation system (used for depositing metals
such as Platinum). The system is water cooled, requiring 3 gallons per minute. Their e-gun was previously cooled by a central
cooling system for the entire building, but that system proved unreliable and
had caused ongoing issues for a number of years. Whenever there were problems
with the central water supply the evaporation tool would be shut down, causing work
on it to come to a halt. This created a desire to become independent from the
main house water supply for efficiency and reliability.
ATC’s sales representative Mbartech helped the customer
make the decision to use a locally mounted air-cooled chiller to sever reliance
on the central cooling system to avoid interruptions in their work. Lydia chose
the ATC K9 because it provided the necessary cooling power, pressure and flow
rate, while maintaining a small footprint and low noise level. Applied Thermal Control
supplied the K9 to precisely control the temperature of the water without
depending on the central water supply.
Marvell NanoLab recommended Mbartech and ATC chillers, and good
references for reliability were also provided by nearby Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.
The lab also considered the upfront applications support, and the
availability of service from the ATC Oregon based service centre (Applied Chiller Services).
Overall Berkeley rated their experience positive, with the
chiller being simple to install and use. We pride ourselves on offering
valuable presales guidance and advising the best solution to our
customers. Following her experience Dr.
Sohn would use ATC chillers in the future and is happy to recommend ATC
products to peers.
Read more on ATC chillers
Find out more about UC Berkeley
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