GRC/GRS: Nanomaterials for Applications in Energy Technology: Energy Conversion, Storage, and Transport
Nontechnical Description
The development of new sources of sustainable energy s is a crucial challenge for the 21st century. The unique properties of nanomaterials have great potential to improve technologies for renewable energy production systems, leading to higher process efficiencies and lower manufacturing costs. The 2015 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and the Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on Nanomaterials for Applications in Energy Technology (NET) focus on identifying the progress, challenges and opportunities of interdisciplinary scientific research to support emerging applications of nanomaterials in renewable energy production and storage technologies. The GRC-NET will be held February 22-27, 2015, at the Ventura Beach Marriott, Ventura Beach, CA. The 2015 GRC-NET has an associated Gordon Research Seminar (GRS), which is a gathering dedicated exclusively to contributions from graduate students and post-doctoral research associates. The GRS-NET immediately precedes the GRC-NET on February 21-22, 2015, at the Ventura Beach Marriott. This award will provide partial support for both the GRC and GRS on Nanomaterials for Applications in Energy Technology.
The development of new sources of sustainable energy is a crucial challenge for the 21st century. The tunable properties and abundance of interfaces give nanomaterials great potential to contribute paradigm-changing approaches to energy technology, potentially leading to higher process efficiencies and lower device manufacturing costs. However, such gains have not yet been realized in many areas of energy technology, due in part to lack of complete understanding of fundamental energy conversion, storage, and transport processes, the challenges associated with integrating nanomaterials into energy devices, the difficulties in inexpensively producing large amounts of nanomaterials with well-defined properties, and the lack of full assessment of the potential health and environmental impacts of nanomaterials. The 2015 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and the Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on Nanomaterials for Applications in Energy Technology (NET) focus on identifying the progress, challenges and opportunities of interdisciplinary scientific research to support emerging applications of nanomaterials in renewable energy production and storage technologies. The GRC-NET will be held February 22-27, 2015, at the Ventura Beach Marriott, Ventura Beach, CA. The 2015 GRC-NET has an associated Gordon Research Seminar (GRS), which is a gathering dedicated exclusively to contributions from graduate students and post-doctoral research associates. The GRS-NET immediately precedes the GRC-NET on February 21-22, 2015, at the Ventura Beach Marriott.
The challenges of exploiting novel nanomaterials for applications in energy technology cross the fields of physics, chemistry and engineering. The GRC-NET and GRS-NET focus on exploring the fundamental mechanisms involved in energy conversion, storage, and transport with nanomaterials, while also illuminating novel approaches in materials design and synthesis and evaluating materials sustainability issues. A primary goal of the conference will be to illustrate how novel and sustainable nanomaterials enable a multitude of novel or more efficient energy technologies, including solar cells, photo-physical approaches for producing renewable solar fuels such can as hydrogen, higher capacity batteries, and more efficient fuel cells. Both the GRC-NET and GRS NET aim at fostering interactions between scientists from different disciplines and stages of their careers working in academia, national research laboratories, and industry. The emphasis on new, largely unpublished work will make this conference a premier platform for scientific exchange on the future developments in the nexus of nanomaterials and energy technology. Furthermore, the culture of this Gordon Research Conference emphasizes the training of junior scientists, including graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and tenure-track faculty. The single-session conference format with a limited number of invited talks and ample time for joint activities and scientific discussion gives junior scientists the opportunity to get to know the leaders in
