We are delighted to welcome world-leading scientists to Cambridge to explore some of the recent breakthroughs in materials research, and how they may have an impact on societies needs in the future
-Dr Nalin Patel, Programme Manager for Winton Programme
This year’s focus on ‘Materials Discovery’ will bring together leading scientists from around the world, revealing unexpected breakthroughs in a wide range of subjects from electronics to life sciences.
Attendance is free, and with last year’s inaugural ‘Energy Efficiency’ event drawing a large audience of researchers and industrialists from a range of disciplines, the event promises to be popular - so pre-registration is essential.
This year’s sessions for the one-day symposium will be:
Session I
The opening speaker will be Professor Chris Wise who has designed a number of landmark building projects. This includes the London 2012 Velodrome that has been hailed as a "supreme" example of 21st century engineering, yet its roots can be traced back to the intrinsic elegance of a Stradivarius violin. In his talk he will explore current thoughts on demand reduction, quality assurance and Building Information Modelling, and look for better answers to address the global problem of shrinking resources serving an expanding population.
Session II
As the size of materials is reduced unexpected phenomena can be observed which can lead to many different applications. Professor Andrea Ferrari, Director of the Cambridge Graphene Centre, will explore the world of ultrathin films and the future of graphene as an emerging technology. This will be followed by Professor Paul Alivisatos, Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who is one of the pioneers in the field of nanocrystals. In his talk he will address some of the principles for design of these structures and their applications for catalysis and sensing.
Session III
In the biological world, the building blocks are complex systems, which can be manipulated to form new forms of functional materials. Professor Jason Chin is Programme Leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, at the University of Cambridge. He has developed approaches to control biological systems with molecular, spatial and temporal precision and will discuss how this can be used to produce artificial genetic code. This will be followed by Professor Daniel Fletcher, from University of California, Berkeley who has being studying the mechanics and dynamics of cell movement. His talk will focus on self-organisation of biological structures.
Session IV
This session will have talks from two leading scientists with a background in chemistry. Ben Feringa has been Professor of Organic Chemistry since 1988 at the University of Groningen and has been designing a wide range of materials. In this talk he will cover the breakthroughs he has led in the field of 'molecular motors'. Professor George Whitesides is one of the leading material scientists of his generation and is Professor at Department of Chemistry at Harvard University. His research crosses many disciplines with applications ranging from biology to microelectronics, some of which he will discuss in his talk.
Dr Nalin Patel, Programme Manager for Winton Programme, said: “We are delighted to welcome world-leading scientists to Cambridge to explore some of the recent breakthroughs in materials research, and how they may have an impact on societies needs in the future.”
The symposium is free of charge to pre-registered attendees and will include a free lunch.
For registration visit: http://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/conferences/materialsdiscovery/form/booking.php
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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