This award is a request for funds to subsidize the registration costs of student attendees at the Fifteenth International Conference on the Science and Application of Nanotubes which will be held on June 2-6, 2014, at the University of Southern California. The PI for the award is Prof. Stephen Cronin from the University of Southern California. Nanotube science, in the context of this conference, includes, for example, ways to separate different nanotube materials by their properties (nanotube has at least one dimension typically less than 1/1000th of the diameter of a human hair); examination of the structure and properties of materials made up of these nanotubes; and applications of nanotubes to thermal and solar energy generation. World-renowned invited speakers will discuss the key challenges faced by scientists and engineers who study such tiny, diverse, and unique materials. Student involvement in this conference is an important educational experience because they are expected to present their own research at poster sessions. Student involvement is critical for developing the next generation of innovative scientists and, hence, continues the growth of this field of research.
The purpose of this nanotube conference series is ?to promote scientific progress, to stimulate free exchange of idea, and to publicize progress in nanotube sciences.? (http://nt14.org/) This is an established conference series that has been held every year since 1999. It has not been held in the United States for the past 10 years. The topics to be covered at this conference span chemical separation techniques, materials science, thermal and solar energy conversion, and many others. The key challenges faced by the research community (e.g., inhomogeneity of carbon synthesis, toxicity, and utilization of carbon nanotubes in large integrated circuits) will be addressed by invited speakers who are world renowned for their leading-edge research on carbon nanotubes and related materials. Student participation is an important component of this conference series, and all students are expected to present their own research at poster sessions during the conference. This inclusion is important to develop the next generation of innovators and, hence, continue the growth of the field. This conference will draw scientists from many disciplines in academics and industry, including chemistry, materials science, biology, physics, and electrical engineering. This type of interdisciplinary exchange is very important for both the established scientist or engineer and the student attendees.
