2022 NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Grantees Conference Sustainable Nanotechnology Focus - Visionary Breakthroughs facilitated by Nano

Held annually since 2001, the National Science Foundation’s Nanoscale Science and Engineering (NSF-NSE) Grantees Conference is a two-day annual event that brings together nanoscale educators, researchers, and experimentalists from academia, government, and industry to highlight information on the research and education activities funded by NSE grants. The virtual 2022 conference explores the timely topic of sustainable nanotechnology.

Specifically, it will raise awareness of this emerging global issue and consider visionary directions and breakthrough options for addressing this challenge. The conference will foster interactions among academic, government, and industry leaders across a diverse array of nanotechnology fields. Final versions of the conference materials, e.g., videotaped keynote, panel, and poster presentations, panel discussions, abstracts, and bios, will serve as conference proceedings.

The global audience may access this material, following the event, at http://www.nseresearch.org/2022/, along with archival information from previous events. The live interactive panel discussions on grand challenges in and potential convergent solutions for sustainable nanotechnology will foster creative interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration.

Additionally, the live poster sessions provide opportunities for real-time one-on-one interactions between presenters and participants. Finally, this event will identify and explore emerging sustainable nanotechnology trends; societal, ethical, and economic implications; and accessible workforce training considerations. These collective perspectives will help to enable academic researchers, industry, government, and communities prepare for and proactively capitalize on targeted breakthrough solutions and systemic high-impact opportunities.

The conference organizers will seek to recruit a diverse set of speakers, especially those from groups traditionally under-represented in STEM fields.

This conference’s primary goals are to promote dissemination of innovative research progress in sustainable nanotechnology, to facilitate research partnerships, and to identify future research directions. The first day of the conference will emphasize Science and Engineering Foundations for Sustainable Nanotechnology and the second day will focus on Nanotechnology for the Environment, Society, and Workforce Development.

Keynote speakers, panel discussions, and poster sessions serve to promote inter-university and academic, industry, government, and national-laboratory interactions. These interactions represent a vital step toward the advancement of the goals of the National Science Foundation, US National Nanotechnology Initiative, and the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act.

To achieve these goals, the 2022 Nanoscale Science and Engineering Grantees conference will feature keynote and panel presentations, panel discussions, and posters that highlight visionary and strategic breakthrough opportunities sustainable nanotechnology. Specific session topics include Tools and assessment metrics for a sustainable nanotechnology landscape; Guiding principles for sustainable quantum biology; Breakthrough syntheses and processes for eco nanomanufacturing; Nanotechnology for clean and sustainable energy conversion; Nanotechnology for clean and sustainable energy storage; Nanotechnology for enhanced climate sustainability; Nanotechnology for sustainable nanomaterials and a clean geoenvironment; Nano EHS to concurrently monitor and improve the environment and health; Compelling evidence-based nano-ethical and legal socio-economic (ELS) policy for enhanced understanding, perception, and behaviors (SEI); and Concurrent Training and Education in Sustainable High-Performance Nanotechnology.

Each keynote address, panel presentation, panel discussion, and poster session will serve as a training opportunity for all attendees, as the expert conference presenters will provide in-depth intra- and interdisciplinary insights across a broad array of nanotechnology fields. NSF-funded researchers and NSF Program Directors will moderate live panel discussions.

Additionally, the live interactive poster sessions will foster in-depth conversations with poster team representatives, as well as additional discussions of the Conference presentations. Questions addressed in the panels included: What is known about these topics in the last decade? What are the critical gaps in understanding?

What are the opportunities for the future? This shared information provides a wealth of knowledge that can catalyze new collaborative and convergent research directions and opportunities. It also will enable an enhanced body of teaching sustainable nanotechnology related materials at the K-12, undergraduate, and graduate levels.

Following the event, the global audience may access final versions of the conference materials at http://www.nseresearch.org/2022/ , along with archival information from previous events. The organizers will strive to ensure that conference related publications properly acknowledge NSF support. The conference organizers will seek to recruit a diverse set of speakers, especially those from groups traditionally under-represented in STEM fields.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.