This grant provides funding to support a symposium on Hierarchical Self Assembly of Functional Materials from Nanoscopic-to-Mesoscopic-Length Scales; at the 2010 MRS Spring Meeting; San Francisco, California; April 5-9, 2010. The main theme of this symposium is related with hierarchical self-assembly which is critical to nanomanufacturing of functional nanostructures. There will be sessions focused on DNA self-assembly which enables the construction of sub-50 nm structures in 2D and 3D. Another focus is on as integrating self-assembling nanostructures at a multitude of length scales so that they can be utilized in the real world as well as understanding factors that control reliability and defect tolerance in self-assembly of nanostructures. The world's leading researchers will be invited to speak. This is not only a good opportunity to boost the progress of self-assembly as an emerging nanomanufacturing paradigm, but also a great educational opportunity to participating students, i.e. our future generation of working force.
This symposium provides a great opportunity for scientists and engineers from around the world, and from many different disciplines to share their results and insights in the field of self-assembly with a special emphasis on manufacturability of functional nanostructures and materials. As compared to other symposia on self-assembly, this one will focus on key challenges such as three dimensional nanomanufacturing, integration of nanostructures and materials across length scales and yield / defect tolerance. Efforts will be made to publicize student support and hence allow the student attendees to become familiar with state-of-the-art self-assembly methods and understand their requirements and needs. Research groups will be encouraged to support undergraduate participation in the poster sessions, as a means of exposing students to a high level of research at an early age.
The grant was used to organize and offset participation costs for students, junior faculty and organizers from all over the world at a symposium entitled, Hierarchical Self Assembly of Functional Materials from Nanoscopic- to Mesoscopic-Length Scales at the Spring National Meeting of the Materials Research Society (MRS) meeting. This symposium focused on the state of the art in self assembly with an emphasis on nanomanufacturing and integrating structures across length scales, as well as the construction of functional devices for electronics, optics, and bioengineering. One significant aspect that was addressed was the need and applicability of self assembly for the fabrication of 3-D miniaturized devices. Practical challenges (such as enabling reliability and high-yield manufacturing) in the development of this paradigm was also be explored. Numerous students, junior, mid-career and senior faculty met to discuss the state of the art in hierarchical self-assembly which is critical to enable the era of nanomanufacturing. There were 36 talks and 12 posters and participation comprised graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, professors and scientists from academia, industry, government laboratories in the US and academicians from centers / universities from all over the world. A special effort was made to encourage participation from groups underrepresented in science and engineering. Additionally, to enhance graduate and post-doctoral education, student tpresentations, posters and interaction with leading academicians was encouraged.
