This second Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Environmental Nanotechnology will be held in 2013. The conference brings together academic, government, and industrial scientists from around the world to present and discuss current research findings on the fate, transport, and impact of nanomaterial as well as on the wide range of useful applications of nanotechnology for pressing environmental challenges. Risks and benefits to both humans and ecosystems will be explored. The planned GRC program includes research areas that impact this field, from the synthesis, characterization, exposure, toxicology, metrology, and risk assessment, to the transport, transformation and ultimate fate of these materials in biological and environmental matrices. Additionally, topics will explore the newest developments in the use of engineered nanomaterial in the fields of energy production, agricultural efficiency, and medicine and water purification, whilst being sure the risk assessments include these newest nano-product formulations. It is anticipated that 200 scientists, engineers, and toxicologists will participate in the conference. This relatively small group of participants will be ideal to promote vigorous discussion and close interchange of ideas that is the hallmark of Gordon Research Conferences. The conference also will involve participants who are junior scholars (undergraduates, doctoral students and postdoctoral trainees). In addition, scientists from groups traditionally under represented will participate. Th steering committee has a comprehensive mailing list in place for announcing this meeting. Because participants of the Environmental Nanotechnology Research Conference will come from not only the U.S. but around the globe, partial support of the conference will be sought from international agencies and U.S. funding agencies in addition to private funding from industry and the Gordon Research Conferences.
Human exposure and toxicity of engineered nanomaterials will be the focus of several sessions at this conference. Analytical tools and models to assess exposure and monitor the distribution of nanomaterials within biological systems at environmentally relevant concentrations are specific focuses of several sessions. The conference also includes sessions on the use of nanomaterials in pharmaceuticals and for water purification, leading to improvement of public health.
