Recipient Organization
GORDON RESEARCH CONFERENCES, INC
512 LIBERTY LN
WEST KINGSTON,RI 02892-1502
Performing Department
Chemical and Environmental Eng
Non Technical Summary
This fourth Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Environmental Nanotechnology will be held in 2017. The conference brings together academic, government, and industrial scientists and engineers from around the world. The theme of this fourth GRC in 2017 is "The Next Generation of Nanotechnology: Materials, Applications, and Implications". This will also be the second year we develop and promote the associated Graduate Research Seminar (GRS). The intellectual merit of the conference lies in the exchange of ideas, analytical methods and experimental approaches that balance the beneficial aspects of nanotechnology against their potential adverse risk to the humans and the environment. In this new area of commercialization of nano-enabled devices and technology, the planned GRC program will frame the discussion focus on nano-enabled products and processes that are increasingly utilized in a number of commercial, industrial and environmental applications. The meeting will discuss public perception of nanomaterials and how we as scientists can better frame the public discussion surrounding nanomaterials. In the past decade, the scientific community has made great advances in research evaluating nanomaterials that may eventually be used in consumer products and their eventual distribution and interactions in the environment. This meeting will discuss the next steps in the field and focus on topics such as advances in nanomaterial design and development for creating the next generation of materials, new applications that are being developed and unique properties of novel nanostructured materials that may be developed to address grand environmental challenges. Applications of materials for food and agriculture will also be discussed and their potentially negative or positive implications for the environment. In addition, the development and application of in situ characterization techniques to reliably measure nanomaterials in the environment. The conference also will involve participants who are junior scholars (undergraduates, doctoral students and postdoctoral). In addition, these meeting has a strong record of engaging participants from traditionally under-represented groups.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
The goals of the Gordon Conference on Environmental Nanotechnology are to draw attention to the need to proactively manage the emergence and implementation of nanotechnology into society so as to avert such problems that arose with earlier research such as those involving DDT, leaded gasoline, PCBs, CRCs and numerous other substances and to discuss opportunities for using nanotechnology to benefit society while protecting the environment in the areas of air, water, soil treatment plus energy and agriculture production. This is a critical research area for several reasons and one which is very relevant to the missions of EPA and particularly to the National Institute of Food and Agriculture as the number of engineered nanomaterials currently on the market in the agricultural food and fiber sector is growing and expected to increase rapidly as scientific knowledge increases and technological development advances; secondly, there are a number of important unresolved questions concerning the safety of these materials; third, the potential exposure scenarios, and their interaction with the biological and environmental systems are largely unknown. Other questions relate to how these materials, once designed, may move through various environmental or biological media or from one media to another across the life cycle of nanomaterials. Additionally, as researchers in the areas of water, energy and agriculture utilize nanotechnology the environmental community must realize the emerging trends to understand where to focus our attention on preventing future issues. Finally, the tremendous success of Gordon Conferences at facilitating meetings that are in depth, intense scientific discussions involving scientific leaders in their disciplines and communities has been well documented. The objectives of the 2017 Gordon Research Conference on Environmental Nanotechnology are to bring together prominent investigators who are at the forefront of their research fields and provide unique opportunities for early career investigators, postdoctoral and graduate students to present their work to the larger community.
Project Methods
The 2017 Gordon Conference on Environmental Nanotechnology and associated GRS will be held at the Stoweflake Report in Stowe, VT from June 18-23, 2017. Speakers and the relevant sub-topics have been chosen by the Steering Committee to appeal to broad cross section of the research community pursuing investigations in the general area of environmental nanotechnology integrating design, manufacturing, and analytics with toxicity challenges and emerging opportunities for remediation. Leaders from various related fields will give formal presentations, which will be followed by poster presentations. Oral presentations will be in the morning and early evenings. Poster presentations will be during the latter part of the afternoon. This format will leave most of the afternoon for conference attendees to interact on an informal basis. The conference chairs will insist that senior colleagues closely interact with junior scientists. This format will promote open discussion and informal exchanges of ideas to advance the field and to establish new collaborations.This fourth GRC on environmental nanotechnology will focus on recent advances in nanomaterial design and development, focusing on the fabrication and unique properties of highly novel nanostructured materials that are, as yet, underutilized in such applications (e.g., 2D nanostructures, soft nanomaterials, and bio-nanocomposites; emerging applications related to resource security and sustainable development (e.g., carbon capture and conversion, nano-enabled membranes at the energy-water nexus, and sensing technologies for real-time environmental quality monitoring); nanomanufacturing comparing the benefits and impacts for nano-enabled versus traditional materials through integrative, life-cycle approaches and address design rules to enhance benefit; global implications regarding how nano-scale innovations have the potential to facilitate large-scale impacts for the environment such as the use of nano to replace existing formulations of pesticides; and food and agricultural applications of nano focusing on recent developments for nanotechnology as it pertains to application in a broad range of food products as well as in agricultural applications of technology for production of food. Several sessions will discuss life-cycle approaches and life-cycle assessments towards the benefit that nano materials can holistically bring and how they can influence positive changes at a global scale.The 2017 Environmental Nanotechnology Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) will be held June 17-18, 2017 and is being organized, designed for and led by graduate students and post-doctoral associates. Inaddition to the Chair and Co-Chair, there are 9 graduate students organizing technical andpostersessions, fundraising, inviting mentors, and developing a social program, which serves as an invaluable leadership and professional development opportunity. It will focus on novel applications of nano-enabled technologies that promise an advantage or new functionality over the current alternatives in fields such as agriculture, water treatment, and renewable energy. Advancements in methodologies to assess potential adverse consequences and evaluate impact-benefit tradeoffs of nanotechnology will also be discussed. Ensuring that the use of nanomaterials does not lead to future unintended consequences is at the foundation of environmental nanotechnology and sustainable 'nano' design.