Symposium/workshop report (2005)

2/21-22 The 3^rd Nanotechnology Symposium —JAPAN NANO 2005—

The 3^rd Nanotechnology Symposium (hosted by Nanotechnology Researchers Network Center of Japan, nanonet) was held on Feb. 21-22, 2005 at Tokyo Big Sight (Ariake, Tokyo). Numbers of advanced researches among industry, academia, and government sectors were introduced in this symposium. The objective of this symposium was to stimulate interdisciplinary and technological information exchanges in nanotechnology research. More than 900 people participated at the symposium.

We invited Dr. H. Rohrer who invented STM as a key speaker. He talked on “The Magic and the Power of Small”. In his talk, in nanoscience and nanotechnology, not only the importance of downsizing silicon based inorganic semiconductor electronics from micro scale to nano scale, but also the need of converging molecular biology and biotechnology were addressed. Under the circumstances, increasing importance of developing technology used not in ultrahigh vacuum but in air and water was addressed as well.

Prof. Shinkai, Kyushu University, who was also invited as a key speaker, talked on “How Can We Integrate ‘Intelligence’ into Molecules?” He introduced his research on creating nano molecular machines for molecular recognition in 1979, which has led to today’s nanotechnology. He mentioned that circumventing Leffler’s classic “enthalpy-entropy compensation relationship” was one of the keys to his sccess.

In other sessions, 12 speakers from U.S., Europe and Japan talked on nanobiotechnology, nanophysics, nanomaterials, and nano IT devices. There were 63 young scientists presenting the one-minute speech in the oral session and the poster session covering nanophysics/instrumentation, nano IT devices, nanomaterials/processing, and nanobiotechnology. The session was filled with discussions about those topics.

JAPAN NANO 2005 was held as a part of Japan Nano Week as well as Nanotech Business Forum 2005 and nano tech 2005, same as last year.