Events Calendar

Engineering at the Nanoscale: Opportunities and Challenges

Speaker: Pulickel M. Ajayan , Rice University

Talk Title: Engineering at the Nanoscale: Opportunities and Challenges

Series: William Spitzer Lecture

Abstract: This talk will focus on opportunities and challenges in building nanostructured materials from nanoscale building blocks. Several nanostructures, with specific emphasis on carbon based nanostructures, will be used to demonstrate the perspective in nanoscale engineering and nanomaterials development. The last couple of decades have seen advances in nanotechnology with promises in many areas of science and technology. Several exciting developments in recent years allow us to formulate strategies to develop the next generation of nanostructured mateirals in controllable and scalable ways. The talk will focus on various aspects of this approach such as synthesis, assembly, nanoscale junctions and interfaces, and nanomanufacturing.

Biography: Professor Ajayan earned his B.Tech in metallurgical engineering from Banaras Hindu University in 1985 and Ph.D in materials science and engineering from Northwestern University in 1989. After three years of post-doctoral experience at NEC Corporation in Japan he spent two years as a research scientist at the Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Orsay in France and nearly a year and a half as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow at the Max-Planck-Institut fur Metallforschung, Stuttgart in Germany. In 1997, he joined the materials science and engineering faculty at Rensselaer as an Assistant Professor and was the Henri Burlage chair Professor in Engineering until 2007. He joined the mechanical engineering and materials science department of Rice University, as the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Engineering from July 2007. Professor Ajayan's research interests include synthesis and structure-property relations of nanostructures and materials science and applications of nanomaterials. He is one of the pioneers in nanotechnology and specifically in the field of carbon nanutubes he was involved in the early work on the topic with the NEC group. He has published one book and more than 400 journal papers, many in high impact journals, with more than 30,000 citations and an h-index of 88. He has several patents and inventions to his credit. He has given more than 300 invited talks including several keynote and plenary lectures in more than 20 countries. He is a world leader in the field of nanomaterials and their applications. Ajayan has received several awards including the Senior Humboldt Prize, 2006 MRS Medal, AAAS Fellow, Scientific American 50 recognition in 2006, RPI senior research award (2003), the Burton award from the microscopic society of America (1997) and the Hadfield medal for the outstanding metallurgist in India (1985). He also holds two Guinness world records, one for creating the smallest brush and the other for creating the darkest material. He is on the advisory editorial board of several materials science and nanotechnology journals and on the boards of several nanotech companies.

More Info: http://chems.usc.edu/academics/12-13/wspitzer2012.htm

Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Ryan Choi

Event Link: http://chems.usc.edu/academics/12-13/wspitzer2012.htm