Media Releases

“Nanotechnology .… Revolution or Evolution?” Leadership Panel

October 23, 2013

TORONTO, ON — A pan­el of nan­otech­nol­o­gy experts, mod­er­at­ed by U of T Mate­ri­als Sci­ence & Engi­neer­ing Pro­fes­sor Doug Per­ovic will explore the pos­si­bil­i­ties of the tech­nol­o­gy as part of a cel­e­bra­tion mark­ing the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to’s  Depart­ment of Mate­ri­als Sci­ence & Engi­neer­ing’s 100-year anniver­sary.

Nan­otech­nol­o­gy is the sci­ence of manip­u­lat­ing atoms and mol­e­cules on a scale so small they can’t be seen with an ordi­nary micro­scope. It’s about coax­ing them into dis­play­ing unusu­al prop­er­ties, such as a mate­r­i­al 10 times as strong as steel, but a frac­tion of its weight, or solar pan­els that pro­duce fuel rather than elec­tric­i­ty.

While nan­otech has the poten­tial to trans­form soci­ety in ways no one ever thought of before, it’s also been the sub­ject of much hype.

“Some would say it has not met expec­ta­tions,” says Pro­fes­sor Per­ovic, Canada’s ‘nabob of nan­otech­nol­o­gy.’ “While it has­n’t tak­en off in the areas peo­ple pre­dict­ed it would take off, it has become huge in unpre­dictable areas.”

Some of the world’s top nan­otech­nol­o­gy experts will be part of the pan­el and give the big pic­ture.

WHAT: Nan­otech­nol­o­gy pan­el fea­tur­ing sev­er­al experts

WHERE: Room#: BA 1130, Bahen Cen­tre for Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, 40 St. George Street (Google map: http://goo.gl/maps/tXBxP)

WHEN: 10am, Thurs­day (Octo­ber 24)

WHO:
Michael F. Ash­by
Roy­al Soci­ety Research Pro­fes­sor
Depart­ment of Engi­neer­ing
Uni­ver­si­ty of Cam­bridge

Shawn Qu | MMS PhD 9T5
Chair­man, Pres­i­dent & CEO
Cana­di­an Solar Inc.

Poli­na Snu­gov­sky
Chief Met­al­lur­gist, Celesti­ca Inc.
Robert B. Storey | MMS 7T7
Man­ag­ing Part­ner, Bere­skin & Parr LLP

Gino Palum­bo
MMS 8T3, MASc 8T5, PhD 8T9
Pres­i­dent & CEO, Inte­gran Tech­nolo­gies Inc

Don­ald R. Sad­oway
EngSci 7T2, MMS MASc 7T3, PhD 7T7
John F. Elliot Pro­fes­sor of Mate­ri­als Chem­istry
Depart­ment of Mate­ri­als Sci­ence & Engi­neer­ing, MIT

David S. Wilkin­son
EngSci 7T2, MMS MASc 7T4
Vice-Pres­i­dent & Provost, Aca­d­e­m­ic
McMas­ter Uni­ver­si­ty

Online link: http://www.mse.utoronto.ca/ai/mse100/leadership.htm

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