INTELLECTUAL MERIT: It is proposed to conduct a three-day symposium on the characterization and control of magnetic particles. They have a variety of uses in therapeutic and diagnostic applications relevant to the Biomaterials program. The funds will be used to support travel awards for graduate students, postdoctorals students, and faculty, including those from underrepresented groups. Magnetic carriers are unique nano-materials with a wide range of biomedical, environmental, and technological impacts. This event will bring scientists, engineers, medical professionals, and program managers together to discuss this rapidly growing and highly interdisciplinary field. Magnetic particles are an enabling technology for a wide variety of biomedical, chemical, electronic, and functional materials research, because they provide a unique handle to manipulate and sense nanostructures.
BROADER IMPACTS: Funding from NSF will be used to support financial assistance to early-stage researchers who may otherwise be unable to attend this meeting. Funding priority will be given to graduate students attending their first national meeting, junior faculty giving an oral presentation, and researchers belonging to underrepresented groups. The existence of potential funding for student travel will be described in advertisements for the symposium to enhance student interest. In addition, both organizers of this meeting are junior faculty in the early stages of their careers. Because this field benefits especially well from cross-fertilization of ideas from chemistry, biology, physics, and engineering, the symposium will create a technical and social environment in which participants from diverse disciplines can discuss trends in research and form fruitful collaborations.
The purpose of this project was to support travel for graduate students, post-docs, and faculty, from underrepresented groups to attend the Frontiers in BioMagnetic Particles II, Charleston, SC May 15-18, 2011. This three-day symposium focused on the characterization and control of magnetic carriers. Magnetic carriers are unique nano-materials with a wide range of biomedical, environmental, and technological impacts. This international event brought scientists, engineers, medical professionals, and program managers together to discuss this rapidly growing and highly interdisciplinary field. Magnetic particles are an enabling technology for a wide variety of biomedical, chemical, electronic, and functional materials research because they provide a unique handle to manipulate and sense nanostructures. Because this field benefits especially well from cross-fertilization of ideas from chemistry, biology, physics, and engineering, is our goal to create a technical and social environment in which participants from diverse disciplines can discuss trends in research and form collaborations The three-day symposium took place May 15-18 at the Embassy Suites – Historic Charleston Hotel in Charleston, SC. The event was co-organized by Drs. Jeffrey Anker and Thompson Mefford. Both are young faculty members at Clemson and are very eager to build lasting, sustainable partnerships with national and international collaborators. Magnetic nanoparticles are unique materials that can be actively controlled using external fields. Four specific topic areas were highlighted. (a) Biosensors and imaging. (b) Magnetic separations. (c) Biomedical applications of magnetic nanoparticles. (d) This symposium provided collaborative efforts among these areas. As the lines between the scientific disciplines began to blur in recent years, it has become vital to showcase the advances of eminent cross-disciplinary investigators while training young scientists of the next generation in such an environment. This symposium succeed in this manner by brining those early in their career into this interdisciplinary field. Financial support ($3,000) was provided to a total of 4 travel awards at $750 each primarily to support graduate student researchers. Awardees were selected based on outstanding scientific contributions based on their abstract submission and level of need. Funding priority was given to graduate students attending their first national meeting, junior faculty giving an oral presentation, and researchers belonging to underrepresented groups. Seen in the table below are the four participants, two whom are women. Table 1: List of sponsored presenters and demographics. e-mail Ariel Haim Hecht hecht@umich.edu Aleksandar Nelson Nacev aleki06@gmail.com Michele Elizabeth Wabler mwabler1@jhmi.edu Venkata Shipa Varahagiri vvaraha@g.clemson.edu
