WS.I

Advanced Characterization Techniques  for Nanotechnologies and Nanosciences

Workshop in memory of Pier Giorgio Merli

September 12 -14

Ten years ago, our friend, mentor and colleague, Pier Giorgio Merli passed away. He was a physicist, a Research Director of the CNR-IMM Institute, and a passionate scientist and electron microscopist.

Giorgio graduated at the Bologna University in 1967, he has devoted for 40 years all his energies to research, innovation and formation in the field of electron microscopy, gaining both national and international reputation. He was President of the Italian Society for Electron Microscopy from 1984 to 1987 and Director of the IMM (formerly LAMEL) Institute from 1992 to 1998. He published over 100 articles in international scientific journals and edited or co-edited the proceedings of several national and international schools on electron microscopy.

In 1974 Giorgio, together with two other physicists of the University of Bologna, GianFranco Missiroli and Giulio Pozzi, realized “The double-slit experiment with single electrons”, which was chosen in 2002 as the most beautiful experiment in Physics by the magazine   Physics World  (http://l-esperimento-piu-bello-della-fisica.bo.imm.cnr.it/english/index.html). Above all, this was the result of his passion for the investigation of the fundamental physical phenomena that always drove his scientific activity. He also had well clear the relevance of the transformation of an idea into an invention, which is testified by the various patents on electron guns or electron detectors that he obtained.

He was a scientist and, on top of that, a rigorous and passionate intellectual, one never completely satisfied of the acquired knowledge, aiming always at a deeper and more refined level of understanding. He was aware of his role as an intellectual, he was honest and disinterested, always trusting in coherence, and his professional as well as human relationships were inspired by the values of morality, equity and merit.

The workshop "Advanced Characterization Techniques for Nanotechnologies and Nanosciences" is dedicated to Giorgio's memory, to continue his legacy in studying, developing and understanding microscopic methodologies as fundamental tools for the physical, chemical and life sciences, as well as to promote his professional, cultural and human values, in particular among the younger scientists to whom  Giorgio has been dedicating most of his energies and whom he has always trusted and encouraged with all his great enthusiasm.

WS.II

AgriNano Techniques

September 12 

With the world’s population expected to exceed nine billion by 2050, scientists are working to develop new ways to meet rising global demand for food, energy and water without increasing the strain on natural resources. Organizations including the World Bank and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization are calling for more innovation to address the challenges of the agri-food sector.

Agriculture uses inefficiently the conventional inputs (water, energy, fertilizers, pesticides) and a significant fraction of them are lost or became unavailable to the crops. At the same time, agriculture (cultivation of crops, livestock and deforestation) is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

The developing Agri-Nanotechniques will be implemented within the evolving science of precision agriculture, in which farmers use technology to target their use of water, fertilizer, plant protection products and other inputs. A second, broad potential application concerns the issues of reduction and valorization of agri-food wastes. The introduction of nanotechnologies in agriculture still need deepen both basic and applied knowledge, however several promising results were achieved, so far. A huge development is taking place in this sector, therefore nanotech applications currently under development will soon be overtaken

NanoInnovation 2018 hosts the 2^nd edition of the workshop “AgriNanoTechniques” co-organized by the Universities of Bologna, Parma, Verona and Udine. The workshop will be the forum for discussing the perspective of nanotechnologies in the primary sector among the stakeholders and scientific research.

WS.III

Advanced Scanning Probe Microscopies

September 13

organized by

Invented about 40 years ago, scanning probe microscopy (SPM) refers nowadays to a family of techniques which allows the imaging of the sample surface with nanometer lateral resolution and sub-nanometer vertical resolution by combining accurate positioning and scanning systems with the use of a nanosized probe which interacts with the sample surface. Beside the improvement of the quality of topographical reconstructions in terms, for instance, of resolution, stability, or scan rate, SPM has been used as a platform to develop several advanced methods for the characterization of many physical parameters of the sample. Thus, from the original use for topographical imaging, SPM is becoming an indispensable nanometrological tool for mechanical, electric, magnetic, thermal, optical, or chemical nanocharacteriazions. Recent efforts have been aimed at broadening the range of physical properties, investigable samples, imaging environments, as well as to enhance accuracy,  sensitivity, and reliability of the analytical methods. Also, recent developments demonstrated the capability of SPM methods to investigate not only surface but also sub-surface properties. This workshop aims at presenting an overview and a selection of some of the most recent improvements in SPM methods, e.g., atomic force microscopy (AFM) for mechanical, electric, magnetic nanocharacterizations, as well as optical or microwave near field methods. Emphasis will be given to both presenting the techniques and reviewing some of the most interesting fields of application, e.g., from microelectronics to agri-food or biomedicine and nano-bio-technologies.

WS.IV

Microfluidics and Biosystems for personalized medicine

September 14

organized by

Technologies for the fabrication of devices and systems at micro- and nano-scales continue to advance and diversify due to the rising demands for miniaturisation, cost reduction, functional integration and performance enhancement. This workshop will provide a broad overview of microfluidics and biosystems technologies as an enabling technology for new product development in diagnostics and in the life sciences. The workshop, co-organized by FBK and the Polytechnic of Turin, is also a training action of the project CanBioSe (H2020-MSCA-RISE-2017) targeted to strengthen collaboration, sharing new ideas and knowledge transfer from research to market in the field of biosensors for cancer cells detection. The objective of the workshop is twofold: a) to share the progress in the field and b) to identify the technological orientation and future challenges offered by the connection between innovative materials  and micro/nanotechnologies. The involvement of representatives of key research disciplines will offer a podium to enable community building and networking, the sharing of progress in both technology and application development, and the identification of common interests. Emphasis is put on the complete development process for microfluidics/biosystems devices, covering aspects of design, manufacturing technologies, and latest trends in the personalized medicine. Application case examples will be presented as well as lessons learned during all stages of the development process of microfluidics and biosystems based devices.

WS.V

Nanotechnologies for innovative medicine

September 13

organized by

Nanotechnologies are a key tool to create innovative materials and devices in the medical field. Thanks to the possibility to manipulate the matter at the nanometer scale, nanotechnologies offer several opportunities to generate fundamental revolution in many areas of medicine.

In this workshop three special sessions will gain insight on research topics relevant for medical applications in which nanotechnologies play a key role. More in details, the first session will deal with “New Materials and Nanotechnologies for Innovative therapeutic Approaches” presenting some of the most recent advances in the achievement of nanoarchitectures releasing bio-active compounds for therapeutic purposes. The second session will focus on “Materials and Devices for Implants and Regenerative Medicine” where a survey of the most innovative approaches for implants and osteo-chondral regeneration based on nanomaterials will be illustrated. Finally, the third session will address “Molecular Biosensors: the next generation devices”, highlighting the most recent developments and emerging nanotechnologies on integrated nanobiosensors for early diagnosis and prevention of diseases.

Two key notes will open the workshop dedicated to “On Dye Doped Silica Nanoparticles as Luminescent Organized Systems for Nanomedicine” by Luca Prodi from University of  Bologna and “Nanomedicine in the field of Ortopedic surgery” by Francesco Traina from University of Messina.