Keynote Speakers

Energy

Dr. Jun Liu is a Laboratory Fellow at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). He currently leads the  “Transformational Materials Science Initiative” at PNNL. Jun Liu has served as technical staff member at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories and Lucent Bell Laboratory. He also served as Department Manager for the Chemical Synthesis and Nanomaterials Department, Sandia National Laboratory, Thrust Leader for Complex Functional Nanomaterials for the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT), Sandia National Laboratories. Jun Liu’s research interest includes self-assembled nanomaterials, synthesis and applications of nanostructured materials for energy, environments and medicine.  He has over 100 publications and many invited review articles in leading journals.

Daniel J. Gaspar, Ph.D. , Materials Chemistry and Surface Research Group
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
"New materials for high-efficiency blue OLEDs"

Dr. Dan Gaspar is currently manager of the Materials Chemistry and Surface Research Group at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), operated by Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).  As Technical Group Manager, Dr. Gaspar ensures materials chemistry and surface research capabilities are developed, maintained and deployed to maximize the impact of the Energy and Efficiency Division’s contributions to PNNL’s mission outcomes. Dr. Gaspar’s group has developed significant capability in the deposition of thin films and the development and understanding of the chemistry of materials, with particular focus on applications in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), battery technology, photovoltaics and nano-scaled materials for separations and sensing. Dr. Gaspar has 10 years experience at PNNL and in industry in materials characterization, electrochemistry, and development and characterization of nanoscale materials with a focus on applications in energy and the environment. Among other professional accomplishments, Dr. Gaspar has published more than 30 papers and book chapters, and is currently the Past Chair of the Applied Surface Science Division of the AVS.

Photonics

Asst. Prof. Byron Gates, Department of Chemistry
Simon Fraser University
"Utilizing Surface Chemistry to Regulate Photothermal Processes"

A Tier II Canada Research Chair in Surface Chemistry at Simon Fraser University, Byron Gates is building a research program to investigate the surfaces of nanostructured materials and the interface between these materials and biological systems.

He has previously worked on developing new routes to structured materials (e.g., photonic bandgap materials) and pushing the limits of soft lithography. His current research interests include the development of new approaches to biosensing and bioimaging, as well as materials synthesis and fabrication. To achieve these goals, he is developing new synthetic strategies to make designer nanostructures, techniques to investigate the specific surface chemistry of these structures, and new methods to position these structures into well-defined patterns. 

Byron received his B.Sc. from Western Washington University and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington while working with Professor Younan Xia. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University with Professor George M. Whitesides, before joining the faculty at Simon Fraser University where he is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Director of Nanofabrication Facilities at 4D LABS.

Dr. William Challener, Senior Researcher at
Seagate Technologies
"Plasmonic transducer for near field heat assisted magnetic recording"

Dr. Challener is a Principal Scientist at Seagate Technology where he has worked for eight years on heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR).  He also worked in the optical data storage industry at 3M and Imation for fifteen years.  His research interests include surface plasmon physics, data storage, and biosensors.  He has 30 patents in these fields, and received the Technical Achievement Award from the Information Storage Industry Consortium in 2007 for his work on HAMR.  He was an NSF graduate fellow at U. C. Berkeley where he received a doctorate in physics, and also a postdoctoral fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Biology

Prof George Whitesides, Department of Chemistry
Harvard University - 2009 Dreyfus Award Winner
"Paper Diagnostics"

Whitesides has had a major and sustained impact in the chemical sciences and materials chemistry. He is one of the most innovative and prolific chemists of our time and the most highly cited living chemist in the world. He has developed powerful methods for the creation of new materials that have significantly advanced the field of chemistry and its societal benefits. His research extends across multiple disciplines, centered on chemistry, but touching biochemistry, drug design, and materials science. His work extends to the engineering of functional systems and the applications of these systems in areas ranging from biology to microelectronics. He has opened broad new technological avenues and has impacted human health in significant ways. Whitesides’s research in materials chemistry has become an essential part of materials synthesis programs around the world.

Asst. Prof. Omid Farokhzad, Department of Anesthesia-
Harvard Medical School
'Multifunctional nanoparticles for medical applications

MolAT-Foundry

Dr. Toyohiro Chikyow, Advanced Medical Material Group -
National Institute for Material Science (NIMS)
"Landscape of materials design and high-throughput materials exploration"

The advanced electric materials center (AEMC) directed by Dr.Chikyow has been focusing on the new materials exploration and screening for the future gate stack materials, including, high-k dielectric oxides and metal gates. The group developed the combinatorial pulsed laser deposition and ion beam sputtering system which enable them to make a lot of ternary phase mixing on Si. Also they developed a new combinatorial sputtering system for complex materials synthesis such as metal doping to binary oxides. Based on the technique with combinatorial X-ray analysis and electrical measurements, they applied their method to find new materials for thermoelectric device, coating materials, and alternative transparent conductive oxides. At the same time, they adopted a theoretical support from the first principle calculation to design the synthesis.
The team is also trying to make a fusion with wide gap semiconductors on Si for new channel materials and solar cell application with hetero structure. As one of trials for beyond CMOS technology, they embed molecules in gate oxide to realize a memory with optical switching. Their final goal of the materials exploration is to establish the materials informatics for semiconductor industry. Because of the increasing number of materials in Si LSI, it will be a fatal issue to lack the fundamental knowledge of materials which are used in the LSI process. Also the lack of information for materials makes us impossible to design the manufacturing process with process simulator. The materials informatics is thought to be useful and contribute to this process simulation for the future nano electronics

Dr. Tomonobu Nakayama, Nano System Integration Group
National Institute for Material Science (NIMS)
"Multiple-scanning-probe Technology for Materials Synaptronics"

Researches on nanometer-scale materials and structures (nanomaterials research) not only interesting from viewpoints of basic sciences, such as physics, chemistry and biology, but also important for engineering and medical applications. For future
applications, it is also important to assemble nanoscale “components” into a predesigned functional “system”. Placing these ideas into practice, the NanoSystem Integration Group aims to establish novel techniques and methods for measuring and utilizing the properties of components and systems at the nanometer scale. Thier laboratory is also appointed as a laboratory in the doctoral course of materials science and engineering, graduate school of pure and applied sciences, the University of Tsukuba.

Dr. Naoki Ohashi, Optronic Materials Center
National Institute for Material Science (NIMS)
"Controlling of functions in oxides for optical ane electronic applications"

Naoki Ohasi contributes to society in the field of optronic materials and structures using nano-science and nano-technology. The Optronic Materials Center aims for the realization of light emission and light modulation materials through developments in light emitting ceramics having well-organized nano-structures and nano-structures exhibiting strong interaction with photons. In particular, OMC focuses on nano-structured wide-band-gap semiconductors for light emitting devices and nano-structured dielectrics for wave-guide and light frequency conversion functions. The goal for thier research is to utilize intelligent light source in various wavelength regions, from mid infrared to deep ultraviolet region.

Prof. James Gimzewski, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of California Los Angles
"Nanoneuromorphic Networks"

James Gimzewski is a distinguished professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Nano/Pico Characterization Lab director of the UCLA California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI). Prior to joining the UCLA faculty in 2001, he was a group leader at IBM's corporate research laboratory in Zürich, Switzerland for 19 years. Dr. Gimzewski pioneered research on mechanical and electrical contacts with single atoms and molecules using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and was one of the first persons to image molecules with STM. His accomplishments include the first probe tip fabrication of molecular suprastructures at room temperature using mechanical forces to push molecules across surfaces, the discovery of single molecule rotors and the development of new micromechanical sensors based on nanotechnology, which explore ultimate limits of sensitivity and measurement. This approach was recently used to convert biochemical recognition into Nanomechanics. His current interests are in the nanomechanics of cells and bacteria where he collaborates with the UCLA Medical and Dental Schools. He is involved in projects that range from the creation of X-rays, ions and nuclear fusion reaction using pyroelectric crystals, direct deposition of carbon nanotubes and single molecule DNA profiling. Dr. Gimzewski is also involved in numerous art-science collaborative projects that have been exhibited in museums throughout the world.

MolAT-Design

Dr. Katsuhiko Ariga, Supermolecules Group
National Institute for Material Science (NIMS)
"Supramolecular Materials Created with Bottom-Up Nanotechnology"

Katsuhiko Ariga has been working on supramolecular chemistry especially related with self-assembly processes, ultrathin films and molecular recognitions. Accomplishments in his researches contribute significantly developments of biomemetic systems as well as physicochemical understanding on interfacial phenomena. Selected topics of his researches can be listed as follows.

1. Preparation and characterization of cellular membrane mimics
2. Development of artificial enzyme based on supramolecular elements
3. Experimental and theoretical researches on molecular recognition at interfaces
4. Pioneering researches on novel and versatile methods for thin film preparation (alternate layer-by-layer assembly)
5. Supramolecular chemistry and biomimetic chemistry in confined nanospace formed within mesoporous materials.

Dr. Hiroshi Fudouzi, NIMA Optronic Materials Center
National Institute for Material Science (NIMS)
"Color chage of soft photonic crystal, a bio-inspired function "

Hiroshi Fudouzi, PhD, is a senior researcher in optronic materials center, NIMS. He got BE and ME in applied chemistry from Kyushu Institute of Technology in 1991 and 1993. He started his professional career as a researcher, national research institute of metals in 1993.
He was a UW visiting scholar in department of chemistry, Younan Xia laboratory, in 2002. He promoted as a senior researcher in 2003 and earned his PhD from Chemistry, Kyushu University in 2004. He is an editor, Advanced Powder Technology (2005- ) and an associate professor in collaborative field, department of frontier materials, Nagoya Institute of Technology (2009- ). He has been working on closely packed colloidal crystals and their engineering applications. Colloidal crystals attract much attention as 3D-photonic crystals and structural color materials. He and his collaborators have reported several applications; photonic paper/ink system (with Prof. Y Xia, UW), photonic rubber sheet (with Dr. Sawada, NIMS), PhC liquid sensor (with Kyoritsu Chemical, Tokyo) and PhC laser (with Dr. Furumi, NIMS). A key issue for industrial use is how to make a high-quality colloidal crystal films. He has been developing a prospective fabricating process of colloidal crystal film.

MolAT-Biomaterial

Dr. Hanagata’s research group is working to establish a novel field of material nanobiology called "surface nanobiology" or "particle nanobiology" because we want to control the functions of genes, proteins, and cells by using nanostructured surfaces or nanoparticles. Basing this new field on the integration of molecular biology and cellular biology with materials science and nanotechnology, we will produce knowledge and information useful to those who design biomaterials and biodevices. Specific research interest includes (a) Elucidating bone formation mechanism and developing artificial bone, and (b) Evaluating biomaterials using comprehensive gene expression analysis. Bone is formed by osteoblasts originating from mesenchymal stem cells. In research interest (a), we discovered the osteoblast gene, whose expression is increased during bone formation, by comprehensive gene expression analysis. This gene encodes transmembrane protein, and is significantly involved in bone formation. We are analyzing the function of this gene and are trying to develop artificial bone on the basis of regulating this protein. In research interest (b), In vitro evaluation of biomaterials has been done by expression analysis of several marker genes or proteins, whose expressions are related to the functions, of cells cultured on biomaterials. We are constructing expression profiles of 30,000 genes of cells cultured on biomaterials by using DNA microarray and are evaluating the biomaterials by comparing of their profiles with that of cells from living bodies.

Prof. Naoki Kishimoto, Quantum Beam Center
National Institute for Material Science (NIMS)
"Ion Beam Engineering for Nano- and Bio-materials"

Dr. Kishimoto’s group deals with quantum beam technology utilizing the unique characteristics, which is the key to create breakthroughs in materials science and technology. Particularly, synchrotron radiation, neutrons and ion beams are promising both for nanofabrication and characterization. The quantum beam technology is effective not only for solid-state nanomaterials but also polymers and biomaterials. His group has focused on nanoparticles embedded in insulators and polymers using heavy-ion implantation, and obtained ultra-fast nonlinear optical properties. The near-field effects are effective for not only optical switching but also various bio-applications. Their unique method of negative ions is free of surface-charging and good for insulating materials/polymers. The dielectric substrates for ion implantation are SiO2, MgAl2O4, LiNbO3, TiO2 and various polymers, PE, PMMA, PS and PC. The ion-polymer interactions provide new functionalities, such as hydrophilic/hydrophobic control and cell adhesion. Since his group is doing with nano-patterning of ion implantation, the molecular control with ions may develop a new field of molecular architectonics.