Support of the American Chemical Society Graduate Student Symposium, New Orleans, March 18-20, 2018

University Of Florida, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: A team of six graduate students from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Florida is organizing a symposium at the 255th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) entitled, ?Finding Our Place at the Bottom: A Symposium in Memory of Richard Feynman.? The late Richard Feynman was a titanic figure in theoretical physics who, in the 1950s, envisioned a future in which materials could be produced and manipulated on a sub-microscopic and even atomic scale. In the year in which Prof. Feynman would have turned 100, this symposium celebrates the pioneering collaborations between chemists, physicists, and engineers that have made such nanomaterials commonplace. The symposium features a series of twelve lectures from preeminent faculty, industry scientists, and government researchers in the field of nanoscience, including topics such as solar energy harvesting, atom-by-atom manipulation, and improving sustainable materials. As this symposium is fully student-organized, the organizers are receiving invaluable training and networking opportunities that will aid them in their future careers. In addition, travel funding for members of underrepresented groups in the sciences is being offered to enable their access to this symposium (scheduled on March 20) and the ACS Meeting as a whole. TECHNICAL DETAILS: Nanoscience has emerged as one of the dominant fields of research in the 21st century, largely due to advances in theoretical understanding of nanomaterials and improved synthetic techniques by which they are realized. The Graduate Student Symposium at the 255th ACS National Meeting celebrates the multidisciplinary nature of nanoscience with the goal of educating and inspiring attendees. The graduate student organizers operate with minimal faculty involvement, so they are also receiving significant experience in symposium logistics, advertising, and fundraising. 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.