This proposal seeks funding towards supporting the 2009 Advances in Magnetic Nanostructures conference, being organized under the auspices of Engineering Conferences International (ECI). Magnetic nanostructures are of considerable interest both from the point of view of fundamental science as well as industrial applications. Due to novel magnetic and magneto-transport properties, such nanostructures can exhibit confinement of magnetic material into two or one-dimensional structures and close proximity with other materials in layered or nanocomposite structures. Reduced dimensionality, engineered interfaces and materials structures can result in new physical phenomena, such as giant and tunnel magnetoresistance, exchange bias, and spin-torque induced dynamics or reversal. These phenomena lead to new device concepts such as magnetic tunnel junctions and spin transistors for potential use in biomedical applications such as hypothermia cancer therapy, guided drug delivery among others.
Intellectual Merit The proposed conference aims to provide a forum for researchers from academic institutions, government research laboratories and industry across the world to discuss fundamental and applications-oriented research on magnetic nanostructures, and to disseminate their latest research results and technological achievements. In addition, to exposing the participants to the latest research results in this exciting field, the conference offers a platform for promoting interactions between researchers for networking, collaboration and sharing ideas. The program will consist of a series of invited oral and contributed poster presentations. The conference will be partially supported by ECI and will be held on October 4- 9, 2009. The ECI meetings, organized along the lines of a Gordon Research Conference, are excellent meetings that bring out the most in a field and set trends for the future.
Broader Impact One of the goals of this conference is to provide a forum for new researchers: young scientists and members of underrepresented groups, researchers from other disciplines, scientists from around the world. Significant effort will be made to include women and members of underrepresented groups as participants and invited speakers. Financial support will be used for the attendance of young scientists, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students, which will provide them an excellent opportunity to learn about major advances in the field and interact with world leaders.
