This award is to support a ?US- Pakistan Workshop on Applications of Nanotechnology, Karachi, Pakistan January 3-9, 2010. The U.S. organizer is Dr. Massimo Bertino, Physics Department, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia. The foreign organizers are Drs. Sayed Hasanain and Arif Mumtaz, Physics Department at Quaid Azam University, Islamabad, and Dr. Raza Shah, HEJ Chemistry Institute, University of Karachi, Pakistan. The project will support 12 U.S. scientists who will travel to Karachi and Islamabad for two workshops, one in each site, jointly with Pakistani scientists. The workshops will focus on nano-biotechnology and nanomagnetism which are the most developed areas of the Pakistani nanotechnology effort and therefore the most likely areas where collaborations can be developed. To maximize the number of new collaborations US participants are being chosen who have never visited Pakistan or do not have on-going collaborations with Pakistan. The first activity will focus on chemical aspects of nanotechnology and it will be hosted in Karachi. The second activity will focus on physics and materials science aspects of nanotechnology and it will be hosted in Islamabad. This separation has logistic and scientific reasons. Logistic reasons, because the two locations are geographically apart from each other and this will allow US researchers to visit and interact with a larger number of research centers. Karachi is in the South of the country and it hosts several major universities and research centers. Islamabad is in the center/north, is home to several Universities and research centers and it is also within driving distance from two other major cities, Lahore and Peshawar, which also host a number of research centers. Scientific reasons, because Karachi is particularly renowned for its chemical institutes, while in Islamabad more emphasis is placed on magnetism and materials research. Intellectual Merit: The proposed topics are in a good scientific area and the activities are well-arranged. The teams are highly productive, and they will address fundamental and practical areas in nanotechnology, where new technologies may be generated. The PI has identified a very strong team of scientists in Pakistan to work with U.S. researchers in areas including synthetic nanoscale materials, magnetic properties of nanoparticles and bio-nanotechnology. The techniques, physics and chemistry that are learned can be transferred to the US. Each of the participants brings a significant area of expertise. The project has the potential of having a large impact on Pakistani science, by creating collaborations between US and Pakistani scientists that can directly impact US research, and by encouraging Pakistani students and postdoc to study in US universities. Broader Impact: The US researchers will gain a new perspective on the state-of-research in a foreign country that is much different than in the US. By visiting Pakistan, they will learn how to design an effective collaboration between the two countries. Interactions between the US and Pakistani scientists is important in mutual understanding of the two cultures and in bridging the gap in scientific knowledge. Scientists in Pakistan will have access to state-of-the-art facilities in the U.S. and scientists from the U.S. will have access to work with highly skilled and talented researchers from Pakistan. Dissemination of the workshop will be done by posting videos of the lectures on a website and publishing proceedings of the workshop in open access journals. Follow-up activities are planned in form of visits of small teams of US faculty and students following the workshop. The workshop intends also to generate collaborations focusing on characterization. The characterization of materials developed in Pakistan requires highly specialized facilities such as high resolution mass spectrometers and synchrotrons. These facilities are not available in Pakistan and samples are currently being sent mostly to Europe. Thus, the conference will likely increase the user base of US advanced characterization facilities.
