Boffins arrive in NZ for nanotech networking

2 February 2004

Boffins arrive in New Zealand for nanotech networking

A large proportion of the world’s top nanotechnologists and advanced materials scientists are arriving in New Zealand over the next few days to take part in a major international conference organised by the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology.

AMN-2: Second International Conference on Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, from 6-11 February 2005, will see more than 300 scientists converge on Queenstown for five days of lectures, symposia and networking.

Please visit www.elec.canterbury.ac.nz/AMN-2 for more information. Should you wish to attend the conference or interview any of the scientists below, please contact Margaret Brown on 04 463 5950, 021 243 5950 or email margaret.brown@vuw.ac.nz. A photographer is available to take images on request.

Professor Henry (Hank) Smith - Heads a world-leading nanotechnology laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology http://rleweb.mit.edu/rlestaff/p-hsmith.htm. As one of the most prominent leaders in the field of nanofabrication technology, his patents have been widely licensed and publications widely cited.

Professor Lynn Gladden - FRS, OBE. One of the Britain’s leading young women scientists, recently elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. www.cheng.cam.ac.uk/people/gladden.html

Professor Ann Dowling - Cambridge University engineering Professor who led the British Royal Society report on Nanotechnology (www.raeng.org.uk/policy/reports). More on Professor Dowling: www.eng.cam.ac.uk/~apd1 or www.britishcouncil.org/science-testimonials-ann-dowling.htm.

Professor Klaus von Klitzing - Charismatic German physicist awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery that under appropriate conditions the resistance offered by an electrical conductor varies by discrete steps rather than smoothly and continuously. www.britannica.com/nobel/micro/324_40.html

Professor Alan MacDiarmid – Victoria University alumnus awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, shared with physicist Professor Alan Heeger and chemist Professor Hideki Shirakawa, for the discovery and development of conductive organic polymers. www.nzedge.com/heroes/macdiarmid.html

Professor Joe deSimone - revolutionised chemical processing (green chemistry) by use of benign environmentally-friendly reagents (supercritical CO2). Described as a future Nobel Laureate.

Professor Ed Samulski - Jefferson Fellow, scientist-at-large for US State Department. www.chem.unc.edu/people/faculty/samulskiet/etsindex.html

Professor Dominique Mailly - Director of Research at the French Government’s National Centre for Scientific Research. Visit sponsored by the French Embassy to encourage New Zealand-France collaborative opportunities.

Rising stars of international science: Ralph Colby, Peter Olmsted, Lou Madsen, Suzanne Fielding.

Victoria University’s own: Professor Alan Kaiser and Professor Jeff Tallon (plenary speaker).

Associated events (on Thursday 10 February) - Nanotechnologies in New Zealand. Opportunities and Challenges (organised by the Foundation for Research, Science & Technology) www.frst.govt.nz/research/foundationforsuccess-Feb05.cfm New Zealand/European Union Nanoscience Session. Contact Margaret Brown (above) for details.

ENDS

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