Europe's largest nanotechnology conference attracts top speakers

(Nanowerk News) Europe's largest annual nanotechnology conference and exhibition, Nanotech Europe takes place in Berlin, Germany's capital city at the heart of Europe. In its fifth year, Nanotech Europe will be held on 28 - 30 September 2009.

Nanotech Europe offers a broad, interdisciplinary overview of nanotechnology, and the opportunity to meet and discuss with the field's top scientists and leading international companies in the nanotechnology community. The conference has a broad scope, covering leading-edge research, industrial applications and cross-cutting topics including: Nanophotonics, Materials, Health & Bio, Safety, Energy, Instrumentation, Functional Surfaces and Investment.

The published conference programme includes many high-quality speakers such as: Herbert Kohler, Vice President Vehicle and Powertrain, Daimler AG (Germany); Christos Tokamanis, Head of Unit "Nano and converging Sciences and Technologies", DG Research, European Commission; Alexander von Preysing, Senior Vice President, Deutsche Börse AG (Germany); Andreas Jordan, Chief Scientific Officer, MagForce Nanotechnologies AG (Germany); Tapani Ryhänen, Head of Strategic Research, Nokia Research Center (Finland); Wang Chen, Director, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (China); Jeffrey A. Hubbell, Professor, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland); Emmanuel Desurvire, Director, Thales Research & Technology (France); Masakazu Aono, Director General, International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (Japan); Andre Moreira, Investment Manager, BASF Venture Capital (Germany).

"We are delighted to have top scientists from several organizations around the world and leaders from international organizations such as Nokia, Shell, Daimler, Carl Zeiss, BASF, Bayer and Magforce speak about opportunities in nanotechnology", comments Maria Sipilä, Event Director from Spinverse.

During the event the Nanotech Europe 2009 Matchmaking will take place on two conference afternoons. The matchmaking service is intended to help companies, research groups and other organisations to find partners for technology development and commercialisation, collaborative research projects and investment and other support.

Furthermore, the conference includes the Lux Research Executive Forum, which focuses on Lux Research's updated forecasts for nanomaterials, intermediates, and nano-enabled products, key nano-enabled product categories decimated by the recession - and those that remain unscathed. Also the new success strategies that incorporate the downturn's repercussions will be discussed. It is organised in partnership with Lux Research.

The programme also includes the European Technology Platform for Micro- and NanoManufacturing (MINAM) Nanofutures workshop.

The Nanotech Europe 2009 exhibition offers an outstanding opportunity to meet the leading international companies, innovative SMEs and research centers that are developing and applying nanotechnology.

The 2009 event is organised by a comprehensive consortium of partners, including Agent-D, the coordination group of the Centers of Competence of Nanotechnology in Germany, Nokia and BioBay, China. It is co-organised with Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin) in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany). The lead organizer of Nanotech Europe is Spinverse, a company specialized in emerging technology commercialization.

Source: Spinverse

http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11502.php

EU scientific hearing on risk assessment of nanotechnologies

(Nanowerk News) On 10 September 2009, the European Commission (DG Health and Consumers) is organising in Brussels a Scientific Hearing on the risk assessment of nanotechnologies. Venue: Centre de Conference A. Borschette, Rue Froissart 36, 1040 Brussels.

The main objectives of this Hearing are to identify:

any possible scientific topics which have not been covered in the opinions from the relevant EU Risk Assessment Committees and Bodies;\ what are -according to current scientific knowledge- the main potential risks that could emerge from the use of nanomaterials in the future; and provision of relevant background information and comments on those issues.

Source: European Commission

http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11516.php

New 3-year study into impact of nanomaterials on aquatic ecosystems

(Nanowerk News) A team of Canadian scientists and engineers, led by the University of Alberta and the National Research Council of Canada, will collaborate on a $3.39 million, three-year study to assess the potential effects of nanoparticles in specific water environments.

"Nanotechnology is a very new and quickly developing field. Governments and regulating agencies around the world are seeking solid scientific data upon which to base their regulatory standards," said Greg Goss, project co-leader and professor of biological sciences, University of Alberta. "This research will allow the nanotechnology industry to proceed with confidence [in the knowledge] that the environmental safety of their products can be properly assessed. In addition, the companies can use the knowledge gained to properly engineer their products with reduced environmental impact."

The research resulting from this study will help regulators understand the interaction of new molecules within our ecosystem, and inform and facilitate the development of sound regulatory policies in this area.The goal is to expedite the safe use of nanotechnology in the future by understanding how to mitigate its impact on the environment.

"NRC brings its extensive expertise in the development of tools and impact assessment methods to the collaboration," said Geoffrey Sunahara, leader of the Applied Ecotoxicology Group at the NRC Biotechnology Research Institute and project co-leader. "This expertise complements the wide-ranging research experience of our academic and private-sector collaborators."

The research team will also develop new testing techniques specifically designed for assessing the impact of new nanomaterials because classic toxicity tests may not be appropriate for some of them. The toxicological data derived from this project will provide an important foundation for a science-based policy on environmental risk assessment of nanoparticles.

The multi-disciplinary team will bring together 19 researchers from the public and private sectors, including leading biologists, chemists, lawyers and engineers from seven universities, three National Research Council institutes, the National Institute for Nanotechnology, Environment Canada, the Government of Alberta, VIVE Nano, Golder Associates and HydroQual Laboratories.

Funding for the project comes from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the National Research Council of Canada, the National Institute for Nanotechnology, Environment Canada and the University of Alberta, and includes in-kind contributions from VIVE Nano, Golder Associates and HydroQual Laboratories.

Source: University of Alberta http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11512.php