U.S.-West Bank Workshop "Nanotechnology for advanced material and devices", Nablus, December 2010; West Bank, Israel

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1013836 NayfehDescription: This award is to support a US-West Bank Workshop on Nano-Structured Advanced Materials, to be held in the West Bank in December 2010. The organizers are Dr. Munir Nayfeh, Department of Physics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and Dr. Hikmat Hilal, Department of Chemistry, AlNajah National University, Nablus, West Bank. The workshop will bring together experts from the US and West Bank (Palestine) to discuss various aspects of nanotechnology, explore ways to collaborate and identify areas for future joint activities. The four-day workshop will cover various nanotechnology areas including synthesis, characterization, and applications. The workshop will include visits to several locations of scientific interest in the West Bank. The goal of the meeting is first to foster collaboration between the US and Palestine in the area of nanotechnology research, education, training, entrepreneurship, and commercialization, and second to discuss proposals for establishing a national center for scientific excellence in nanotechnology that serves Palestinian universities, research organizations, general school education as well as industry. The activity promises a variety of mutual benefits for both the US and the West Bank (Palestine) that increases opportunities in research and teaching, tech transfer and job creation. Intellectual Merit: Upon miniaturization, material often acquires improved and novel properties not found in bulk, such as improved mechanical, electrical, optical, as well as chemical properties, and becomes lighter, stronger and cheaper. Nanotechnology is a field in which both industrialized and developing countries can participate at the cutting edge of development and as such is conducive to international collaboration. The impetus of nanotechnology research is not only the elucidation of the nature of material when miniaturized to a regime at the transition between the solid and molecular states, but also the exploitation of this nature for manufacturing better products at lower cost and with new functions allowing the improvement of the quality of life. Broader Impacts: The proposed project is intended to provide cultural training and international experience and perspectives for US scientists, graduate and undergraduate students. It will stimulate US scientists with NSF-sponsored research to add international collaborative components with universities in the Middle East. The workshop is also intended to stimulate scientific collaboration and important intellectual bridges in the region and between groups at individual as well as institutional and state levels from key parts in the Middle East. Finally, it is hoped that this workshop will encourage networking and joint ventures. At least four US junior scientists and students will participate in the workshop, and visit at least three academic and research institutions in the West bank.