Center News
May 2009 Symposium — Materials for a Sustainable Future
CCMR Staff :: May 28, 2009
ITHACA, NY (CCMR Staff) -- On May 18, 2009, the CCMR and the KAUST-CU centers held a combined symposium within the theme Materials for a Sustainable Future. The program is a networking and learning opportunity for scientists in industry and at Cornell to develop collaborative work. The symposium gathered 72 faculty and students from Cornell and 27 off campus guests; 22 off campus organizations were represented.
Professors Geoff Coates, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Emmanuel Giannelis, Materials Science & Engineering, and Anil Netravali, Fiber Science & Apparel Design, led CCMR and KAUST-CU’s efforts. The Cornell University speakers gave overviews of their current research interests and of their potential applications. The interface between natural and synthetic materials was a common theme. Syntheses of green materials and composites from biomass such as agricultural wastes and plant proteins, and use of CO2 to synthesize biodegradable polymers from CO2 were described as well as the production of nanoparticles of controlled sizes using waste product like scrap wood and of organic-inorganic hybrid nanomaterials or nanoparticles ionic materials (NIMs), which are the focus of the KAUST-CU center. A broad range of applications was highlighted during the lectures and the poster sessions: energy generation, conversion and storage, synthesis of fouling resistant coatings, and manufacturing of sport and ballistic equipment.
Students from various departments presented 38 posters and, following the poster session, two posters were selected by our industry guests for the quality of the work presented. The students received travel awards. Hiroki Sai of Professor Wiesner’s group and Heloise Therien-Aubin of Professor Ober’s group, both from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, shared the first Prize for the posters “Morphology Control in Block Copolymer-Metal Nanoparticle Hybrid Materials” and “Antifouling Polymer Coating for Reverse Osmosis Membrane”.
Many thanks to Robin Nichols, who took care of all the logistics and to the CCMR and KAUST-CU staff; John Sinnott edited documents and conducted the tour of the CCMR facilities; David Jung conducted the tour of the KAUST-CU Center; LiLynn Graves was the symposium website manager and graphics designer; Mark Peterson was in charge of the audiovisual equipment; and Tracy Davenport and Nev Singhota helped at the registration table and to set up the poster session. This team effort was led by Michèle van de Walle.
Go to the symposium site
