nanoSMat2005 conference report

[nanoorg]

Aveiro hosts nanoSMat2005

Aveiro, Portugal was the venue that hosted nanoSMat2005 – the International Conference on Surfaces, Coatings and Nanostructured Materials during 7-9 September 2005. The event attracted 220 participants from forty countries and six continents of the world. Some 300 papers, including 30 invited, were presented in 4 parallel oral sessions and a poster session.

Nobel Laureate Sir Professor Harold Kroto from Florida State University, USA, was invited to deliver the plenary lecture on “Some New Insights into the Mechanisms of Fullerene and Nanotube Formation”. Sir Harold Kroto discussed the exciting birth of C60, a new form of carbon, who’s discovery ignited the scientific community and led to many new fields of research in the nanotechnology world. The plenary lecture attracted around 500 people including professors and students from the University of Averio where the lecture took place.

6th September saw two short courses offered concurrently on nanostructured materials and thin films characterisation techniques, respectively. The one-day courses were conducted by the renowned speakers Professor Stan Veprek (Germany), Professor Sam Zhang (Singapore), Dr D. Lovell (United Kingdom) and Dr J. Smith (United Kingdom).

The conference also housed an exhibition, where up to ten materials, thin films and advanced characterisation technology companies from Europe, Asia and USA had participated in the conference, set up their exhibition booths and attracted constant visits from delegates during the conference

The “Best Paper” award went to Dr Dominik Eder and co-researchers from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom for their paper titled “Nanostructured substoichiometric titania-supports for noble metal catalysts”. Sir Harold Kroto handed over the prize of 500 Euros to Dr Eder at the conference banquet. Eighteen students were the lucky winners of the “student travel awards”. The prizes were handed out at the conference banquet by Professor Nasar Ali, the conference chairman.

In his closing speech, Professor Nasar Ali thanked all the invited speakers, speakers from all over the world, participants, sponsors and University of Averio for their enthusiasm, hard work and unreserved support which made the conference a huge success. Professor Ali concluded, “…as all the support continues, nanoSMat2007 will be an even bigger success”.

Details on nanoSMat2005 can be found on URL: www.mec.ua.pt/icscnm
Professor N. Ali heads the Surface Engineering and Nanotechnology research at the Centre for Mechanical Technology and Automation, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Aveiro, Portugal. Contact details: E-mail: <n.ali@mec.ua.pt>, Tel: +351 234 378 177, +351 234 370 830 (ext. 23887), Fax: +351 234 370 953.