The main objective of this proposal is to support participation at the Eighth U.S Japan Joint Workshop on Nanoscale Transport Phenomena. This proposal requests support to subsidize the travel and lodging expenses of several investigators from the US, and the registration fees for all students and postdocs. The workshop is scheduled to be held July 13-16, 2014 in Santa Cruz, California. The workshop will focus on a broad array of technologies will benefit from a better understanding of nanoscale transport and energy conversion processes. The workshop will provide future research directions and catalyzing new interactions and collaborations of researchers in both countries. It is anticipated that this workshop will result in joint research papers, exchange of students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty, as well as sharing of research facilities between the U.S. and Japan.
The workshop will additionally provide a cross disciplinary and international forum for discussing and identifying outstanding science and technology issues in the area of nanoscale thermophysics and energy conversion. Some topics scheduled for discussion are: thermal transport in emerging 2D materials; nanoelectronic devices; thermal phenomena in novel nanostructured thermoelectric, optoelectronic, and photovoltaic devices; thermal transport in biological systems and transport in nano and bio fluidic systems; and theoretical and computational methods including density functional theory, molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations for energy conversion and transport in nanostructures.
The workshop will offer three specific features with direct benefit to NSF and the research community.
(I) The sessions are designed to focus discussion on emerging/unidentified research areas that are currently within reach due to the technical advancements in recent years. The results of these discussions will be published in a leading journal and will be made available to NSF. (II) The talks will be recorded and made publically available via the internet (contingent on obtaining approval from individual speakers). This will enable much broader dissemination of the technical detail presented at the conference. (III) To quantify and document the overall priorities of this expert technical community, an anonymous survey of conference attendees will be conducted during the first two days,, with results rapidly compiled and discussed on the final day of the workshop, and further disseminated as part of an archival journal paper.
Preference of funding support will be given to young investigators. The NSF travel support will primarily be given to junior participants, who include at least five graduate students, two post doctoral researchers, and eight assistant professors.
