The proposed project will support student participation in the 2014 Graphene Conference, which will be held at the Centre de Congres Pierre Baudis in Toulouse, France from May 6-9, 2014. The conference will address graphene and other 2D materials beyond graphene. There will be sessions covering fundamentals and applications of these materials and participants will represent both the US and European, Asian academia and industry. Participation is expected from around the world, with an anticipated attendance of about 1000. The Conference will address fundamentals of Graphene, other 2D Materials, worldwide Graphene initiatives, theory and simulations, Material Genome Initiative (MGI) approaches to Graphene and 2D materials, manufacturing, workforce development and education.
The conference will address educational aspects such as curriculum development, web-based learning, exchanges and summer schools. There will be considerations made for exchange programs in research and education, women in science, coordination of future summer schools, and definition of ways to educate the international community on grapheme and 2D materials. This should contribute to a broader use of Graphene and 2D materials in various applications, such as communications, sensing and health.
We were not able to utilize the funds because the award was made after the Graphene Conference. We were unable to adequately advertise the scheme prior to the coneference due to the fact that funding was not secured. We endeavored to find qualified US students to provide the funds retroactively but the coneference had already provided sufficient funding so extra funding was not needed. We made substantial effort to find students but those who replied to our requests were not qualified for funding because of their immigration status or the fact that they were not students. We therefore request that funds be carried over in the form of a no cost extension for US graduate student support for Grapehene 2015 conference to be held in Manchester, England. The PI is a co-organizer of this conference and there is sufficient time between now and the conference dates (June 22 - June 26) to advertise the availability of funds for US graduate students. The coneference promises to be exciting with exceptionally outstanding list of prominent experts in the field of graphene and other 2D materials. The venue is where graphene was first isolated. US students will benefit from being in the heart of graphene valley and seeing first hand how ground breaking discoveries are made.
