Advances and Future Directions in Nanotechnology to feature in Melbourne next week (2/23/2008)

Australia's major forum for the advancement and discussion of nanotechnology - the International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICONN2008) - will be hosted by the University of Melbourne and Monash University from 25th to 29th February.

Nanotechnology is the development and use of devices that have a size of only a few nanometres - one nanometre is one-millionth of a millimetre and a single human hair is around 80,000 nanometres in width. Their tiny size means they can be used as the building blocks for advanced computer chips and high density information storage, as well as for biological applications such as biolabelling and drug delivery.

"Nanotechnology advances are far-reaching and there will be Australian scientists presenting recent breakthroughs in nanoelectronics, drug delivery with nanocapsules, quantum computing and nanotechnology based solar cells. The conference will also discuss major issues such as sustainable manufacturing through miniaturisation, environmental effects of nanotechnology, health and safety, education and regulation" said conference Co-chair Prof Paul Mulvaney from the University of Melbourne.

"ICONN 2008 brings together leading international and Australian researchers, business, industry, education and government leaders to discuss the latest advances and future directions of this important field."

250 oral presentations and 200 poster presentations will cover current aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology from 35 countries around the world.

The conference will also incorporate a community event - 'An Opportunity for the Public to Voice its Opinion on Nanotechnology' on Thursday 28th February. RSVPs and enquiries please contact Jason Major on 1800 631 276 freecall Australia-wide or email nanotechnology@innovation.gov.au

Research from the University of Melbourne include:

• Dr Rachel Caruso - Controlling the structure of materials on a very small scale can influence how well they perform in applications. Titanium dioxide materials with "sponge-like" features (lots of holes) are being fabricated that have applications in producing electricity from sunlight or cleaning up polluted water.
• Professor Frank Caruso - His group has undertaken fundamental research into developing nanoengineered capsules which are designed to encapsulate a drug and deliver it to specific areas within the body. The capsule is designed to protect the body from harmful side effects of the drug, and the drug from being degraded by the body. This technology is aimed at improving the effectiveness of therapies for ailments as diverse as cancer, HIV and cardiovascular diseases.
• Professor William Ducker - About 10% of the world's electricity is used for pumping fluids and the energy cost is mainly due to friction with the walls of pipes. His group is investigating this wall friction, and looking at methods of reducing it by studying lubrication forces, hydrophobic forces, the organization of polymers and surfactants at interfaces, and on interfacial nanobubbles. He is also working on the storage of hydrogen for automobile applications.
• Professor Paul Mulvaney - Magnetic or fluorescent nanocrystals are attached to proteins, cell surfaces and antibodies as part of a program into cancer research. The labels allow visualisation of biological objects which are normally colourless. The nanocrystals are very stable, whereas existing dye molecules are not photostable. Results on new methods for biolabelling using fluorescent nanocrystals will be presented. A new design for a tunable quantum dot based LED will also be presented, which enables LEDs of almost any colour to be fabricated using wet-chemical processing. A University of Melbourne patent has just been filed on this invention.
• Prof John Sader - His group have developed the Atomic Force Microscope, which is used widely in nanoscience and his cantilever calibration technique, commonly refereed to as the "Sader Method", is an international standard. His group is currently focused on studying the mechanical behaviour of materials at the nanoscale using a combination of measurement and theory.

Plenary Lectures:

• In-depth Panel Discussions on all aspects of Health and safety led by Andrew Maynard Smith from the US Woodrow Wilson Institute.
• Clayton Teague on the US Nanotechnology Roadmap
• Vicki Colvin on Health and Safety Aspects of Nanoparticles in medical applications
• Michael Grätzel on Nanotechnology driven Solar Cell technology
• Don Eigler, the pioneer of atomic scale nanotechnology on the Limits of Nanotechnology, and Lars Samuelson on the ultimate Limits in Imaging.
• Taegwhan Hyeon on Scaling up Nanomaterials for Optics, Electronics, Display devices and Medicine
• Sam Stupp on Nanomedicine
• Yi Cheng Lu on Next Generation Photonic nanodevices

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by The University of Melbourne

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