This grant provides funding to organize the Cretan Workshop on Global Challenges and Future Opportunities for Nanomanufacturing and Nanotechnology in Crete, Greece, on June 29-30, 2011. This workshop has two main objectives. First, to bring together a group of US researchers and their foreign counterparts to identify current challenges, future rewarding research directions, priorities and approaches and to provide opportunities for collaboration on specific fields where advances in nanomanufacturing have the promise for an immense impact, namely: (i) Current Nano Challenges; (ii) Environmental Implications; (iii) Energy Conversion and Storage; (iv) Biotechnology; and (v) Large Scale Nanomanufacturing, Innovation and Commercialization. The second objective is to provide a unique opportunity for several US graduate students to gain international research experience, meet, discuss and present their work via poster presentations, be exposed to an interdisciplinary environment and offer potentially high benefits through collaboration with investigators abroad. The preliminary list of invitees/participants includes world leaders and renowned researchers from the US, Europe, the region (Greece) and around the world who are in the scientific forefront of nanoscience and nanotechnology.
This workshop provides an excellent venue and environment for the exchange of ideas and open discussions that allow for the presentation of the researchers? latest work, augmenting efforts to advance the research frontiers in this field via international collaborations. The workshop will provide a significant opportunity for human resource development and graduate education, training and exposure to an interdisciplinary international environment. An elite volume will be compiled in electronic format with all invited presentations and posters presented by the students. In addition, participants can submit manuscripts based on their presentations for consideration for publication to a number of reputable referred journals. Special efforts will be devoted to make the workshop available for underrepresented minorities, women and persons with disabilities. Underrepresented minorities will also be pursued through interaction with the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers (housed on UTA campus).
Activities During the past decade, research and development in nanoscience and nanotechnology have made tremendous progress and provided clear indication of their potential in addressing global societal issues relating to energy, environment and human health. The Cretan Workshop on: Global Challenges and Future Opportunities for Nanomanufacturing and Nanotechnology was held in conjunction with the 3rd International Conference from Nanoparticles and Nanomaterials to Nanodevices and Nanosystems (IC4N) in Crete, Greece from June 29-30, 2011. Crete, an ancient crossroads, was an excellent fit with the background of this event that brought together scientists from diverse disciplines and different continents in an effort to address current global societal needs. This international forum addressed and discussed the current state-of-the-art, identified barriers to progress along with future, challenging and rewarding research directions in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology with emphasis on nanomanufacturing. The venue provided a stimulating environment for interaction and foster collaboration among 120 participants from 26 countries around the world. A strong US participation was involved including distinguished researchers and several US graduate students. There were eight Special Symposia with 70 oral presentations (mostly invited) and more than 80 poster papers. The Cretan Workshop on: Global Challenges and Opportunities for Nanotechnology focused on four key targeted areas with invited review presentations by wolrd leaders in the field from US and EU. Each session was followed by open floor discussion. The Workshop themes included: Biotechnology, Environmental Applications and Implications, Energy Conversion and Storage, and Large Scale Nanomanufacturing, Innovation and Commercialization. Travel support was provided to all US invited speakers at the NSF Workshop. In addition, following an open, nation-wide competition, 12 US graduate students were selected including five underrepresented minority students and funded to present poster papers at the Workshop. The event provided the opportunity to these students to gain international exposure and experience, meet renound researchers, discuss their work and receive guidance in terms of challenges and future rewarding research directions. The objective of the two-day Workshop was to bring together researchers in an international, interdisciplinary environment with the intention to establish focused teams and more effectively address specific nano themes of interest. Following this event, several papers have been submitted and published in the Journal of Nano Research after peer review. Findings: The 3rd IC4N addressed all aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology ranging from fundamentals to applications in human health, energy and the environment. There were four Keynote lectures by Phaedon Avouris (IBM T.J. Waltson Research Center, USA) "Graphene-based Electronics and Optoelectronics"; Ehud Gazit (Tel Aviv University, Israel) "Self-assembled Peptide Nanostructures: Design, Synthesis and Deposition of Novel Assemblies with Unique Chemical, Mechanical, and Physical Properties"; Kenneth Dawson (University of College Dublin, Ireland) "Interaction of Nanoscale Objects with Living Organisms"; Esko Kauppinen (Aalto University, Finland) "SWCNT Thin Films for Flexible Electronics". The keynotes provided an overview of the current status along with insight, challenges and potential in the diverse fields addressed. There was a Special Lecture by Professor Demetrios Anglos (University of Crete) on "Lasers in Search of our Past: A Bright Future". The conference also involved 70 additional oral presentations (almost all invited) lecturing in the eight special symposia shown in the Technical Program (attached). The Cretan Workshop was focused on four targeted areas (i) Topic I: Biotechnology; (ii) Topic II: Environmental Applications and Implications; (iii) Topic III: Energy Conversion and Storage; and Topic IV: Large Scale Nanomanufacturing, Innovation and Commercialization. In these overviews, the current state-of-the-art was presented; barriers to progress were identified and discussed along with future rewarding research directions. The Workshop and the following discussion sessions provided exchange of ideas and collaboration opportunities for researchers across the Atlantic.
