NSF has made an aware in support of registration, housing and travel for 10 students and minority investigators to attend the Annual meeting of the International Society for Ceramics in Medicine (ISCM), October 18-21, 2016, Charlotte, NC. Though this is the 28th such annual meeting, the meeting has only been held once in the United States in the last 19 years. The meeting's theme is "Multifunctional Bioceramics for Innovative Therapy" with a particular emphasis being placed on drug delivery for treatment of difficult diseases, including cancer and infection, and for bone reconstruction. Highlighted topics include multifunctional bioceramics for drug delivery and tissue reconstruction, bioglasses, composites, bioceramics coating technology, 3D printing of bioceramic medical devices, manufacturing techniques of bioceramics, new design of bioceramics and clinical applications and bioceramic curriculum development and education.he NSF funds will be awarded as prizes in a research competition. The two objectives are to: 1) provide US biotechnology investigators and students opportunities to constructively interact with international fellow investigators and clinicians with complementary expertise in order to develop new collaborations and 2) provide graduate students and minority researchers opportunities to showcase their research in a competitive forum. Every participant will have the opportunity to present his/her research in a podium or poster presentation and submit full papers that will be peer reviewed and published in the Proceedings. The NSF funds will be awarded as prizes for these presentations. Broader Impact will be achieved by the bringing together of researchers and educators from numerous disciplines at various stages of their careers - from materials scientists, chemists, bioengineers to biologists to clinicians - from academia and industry - from students to well established researchers, in an outstanding environment for state-of-the-art and in-depth discussions. Encouragement of student and post-doc participation will have a broad impact on bioceramics research in the USA not just for current times but for the future as investigators and students will interact with international scholars, network and develop into future leaders in bioceramics science and engineering.
