Stanford and IBM have distinguished histories in nanoprobe research and they formed the Center for Probing the Nanoscale to propagate this legacy into the next generation. Over twenty faculty participate in the CPN (including three IBM core Investigators) as well as dozens of students and postdocs. Participants reflect the interdisciplinary nature of nanoscale science and engineering, coming from eight academic departments and two industry research campuses (Physics, Applied Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Art and Art History, IBM Almaden and IBM Yorktown Heights).

Research is organized into four Theme groups.