Program

ICNFA Keynote Lecture

August 06 | 9:10 AM - 9:55 AM | Session Chair: Dr. Domenico Lombardo, CNR - (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche), Italy

A Superficial Tale: Semiconductor Nanowires as a Remarkable Platform for Nanoelectronics and Sensing
Dr. Harry Ruda, University of Toronto, Canada

Harry Ruda obtained his Bachelors from Imperial College in 1979 and his PhD from MIT in 1982 for work on the optical and transport properties of II-VI based infrared detector materials. From 1982 to 1984 he worked as an IBM postdoctoral fellow on one of the first theories for electron transport in selectively doped 2d electron gas heterostructures. From 1984 to 1989 he was a senior scientist at 3M corporation leading their II-VI blue laser program and joined the University of Toronto in 1989 where he is currently a full professor and the Stanley Meek Chair in Nanotechnology and Director of the Centre for Nanotechnology. He has about 300 journal publications with about 8,200 citations and h-index of 43. He serves on the editorial boards of numerous journals and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Fellow of Institute of Physics, Fellow of the Institute of Nanotechnology, Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

ICEPR Keynote Lecture

August 06 | 9:55 AM - 10:40 AM | Session Chair: Dr. Devika Chithrani, University of Victoria, Canada

Climate Change Mitigation in Cities: Challenges and Opportunities
Dr. Rajasekhar Bala, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Rajasekhar Balasubramanian (Bala) is a Full Professor and Deputy Head in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the National University of Singapore. Prof Bala’s research interests cut across environmental sustainability, climate change and urban air quality. The main goal of his interdisciplinary research is to advance understanding of environmental and health impacts of air pollution on scales ranging from local to global. His work provides policy-relevant scientific inputs and contributes to development of cost-effective technologies to mitigate adverse impacts of air pollution. He has led multi-national collaborative projects related to assessment and mitigation of personal exposure to airborne particles. He is currently spearheading an international research program that aims at improving air quality in cities through global alliance with premier universities. He is a one of the Lead Authors for the UN Environment Program’s Global Environment Outlook, focusing on cross-cutting issues on environment and health. He is a member of the science panel of APCAP (Asia-Pacific Clean Air Partnership), appointed by UNEP (United Nations Environment Program). He is a recipient of many teaching and research awards, notably the PROSE (Professional and Scholarly Excellence) award in recognition of his contribution to the Global Environment Outlook (GEO-6) Report “Healthy Planet, Healthy People”, edited by UN Environment and published by Cambridge University Press.

Session

August 06 | 10:45 AM - 11:35 AM | Session Chair: Dr. Devika Chithrani, University of Victoria, Canada & Dr. John McDevitt, New York University, USA

Nanomedical Applications: Drug Delivery, and Tissue Engineering

Session

August 06 | 11:35 AM - 12:05 PM| Session Chair: Dr. Devika Chithrani, University of Victoria, Canada & Dr. Rajasekhar Bala, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Soil Pollution and Treatment

ICERT Keynote Lecture

August 06 | 12:25 PM - 01:10 PM | Session Chair: Dr. Devika Chithrani, University of Victoria, Canada

Improving Battery Performance via Mechanical Activation Enhanced Synthesis
Dr. Leon Shaw, Illinois Institute of Technology, USA

Dr. Leon Shaw is the Rowe Family Endowed Chair Professor in Sustainable Energy and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology. His research interest is in novel materials synthesis and processing for energy storage. He was named as “Illinois Researchers to Know” in 2020 by Illinois Science and Technology Coalition and received an Energy Award in 2018 presented by International Association of Advanced Materials. He has authored more than 300 publications in materials synthesis and processing with 11,000+ citations. He is a Member of EU Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of ASM International, and a Fellow of International Association of Advanced Materials among others.

ICBB Keynote Lecture

August 06 | 1:10 PM - 01:55 PM | Session Chair: Dr. Domenico Lombardo, CNR - (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche), Italy

Development and Deployment of ‘Smart Diagnostics’: Next Generation Point of Care Sensors with Capacity to Learn
Dr. John McDevitt, New York University, USA

John T. McDevitt now serves as a Full Professor within the Department of Biomaterials at New York University, is a member of NYU’s Bioengineering Institute and participates as a faculty member in the NYU Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering within the Tandon School of Engineering. Prior to this time, he served for 5 years as the Brown-Weiss Professor of Bioengineering and Chemistry at Rice University and rose through the academic ranks at University of Texas at Austin where he was positioned for 20 years. McDevitt completed his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from Stanford University.

Professor McDevitt is a pioneer in the development of ‘programmable bio-nano-chip’ technologies. He has a strong track record of translating essential bioscience, artificial intelligence and medical microdevice discoveries into real-world clinical practice. In this capacity, he has served as the Scientific Founder for a number of diagnostic and clinical services companies including OraLiva which features smart diagnostics for early disease detection as well as SensoDx which develops and monetizes programmable diagnostic hardware. McDevitt and his team have raised over $45M in Federal and Foundation support. His recent research has been sponsored by major programs funded by National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at NIH, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), Renaissance Health Service Corporation (Delta Dental of MI), the Army and the United Kingdom’s Home Office Scientific Development Branch.

McDevitt and his team have written more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts and have contributed to more than 100 patents and patent applications. This work was recognized with the “2020 People’s Choice Award for the TOPx COVID-19 initiative”, “2016 AACC Wallace H. Coulter Lectureship Award,” “Best of What’s New Award” in the Medical Device Category by Popular Science as well as for the “Best Scientific Advances Award” by the Science Coalition. Dr. McDevitt’s individual honors include the Presidential Young Investigator Award, the California Polytechnic Distinguished Alumni Award and the Exxon Education Award. Over the past years, Dr. McDevitt has served as the Principal Investigator for 6 major clinical trials and 2 clinical pilot studies, all involving the programmable bio-nano-chip. Through these clinical efforts, mini-sensor ensembles are being developed for major diseases in the areas of COVID-19 disease severity, oral cancer, cardiac heart disease, trauma, drugs of abuse, ovarian cancer and prostate cancer.

Session

August 06 | 02:00 PM - 03:45 PM| Session Chair: Dr. Devika Chithrani, University of Victoria, Canada & Dr. Rajasekhar Bala, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Green Manufacturing and Technologies, Pollution Prevention

Session

August 06 | 3:45 PM - 4:00 PM | Session Chair: Dr. Domenico Lombardo, CNR - (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche), Italy

Nanobiotechnologies

ICEPR Keynote Lecture

August 07 | 9:00 AM - 9:45 AM | Session Chair: Dr. Devika Chithrani, University of Victoria, Canada

Recycling Urine for Hydrogen Production in a Microbial Electrolysis Cell (MEC) System Using a Novel Mos2 Nano Carbon Coated Electrode
Dr. Woo Hyoung Lee, University of Central Florida, USA

Dr. Woo Hyoung Lee, P.E. is an associate professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering at the University of Central Florida (UCF). He received his Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 2009. His primary research area is to develop electrochemical microsensors for in situ investigation of physical and chemical dynamics in microenvironments such as biofilm, corrosion, and emulsions by combining with nano and biotechnology. His other research interest is to develop renewable (bio)energy processes for environmental sustainability. He is currently a registered professional engineer.

ICERT Keynote Lecture

August 07 | 9:45 AM - 10:30 AM | Session Chair: Dr. Devika Chithrani, University of Victoria, Canada

Progress in Advanced Photovoltaic Thermal Collectors
Dr. Kamaruzzaman Sopian,National University of Malaysia, Malaysia

Prof. Dr. Kamaruzzaman Sopian obtained his BSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1985, MSc in Energy Resources from the University of Pittsburgh in 1989 and PhD. in Mechanical Engineering from the Dorgan Solar Laboratory, University of Miami in 1997. He is presently the Professor in Renewable Energy and Director of the Solar Energy Research Institute, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia). He has been involved in the field of renewable energy for more than 30 years. His main contributions are in advanced solar photovoltaic systems (grid-connected photovoltaic, solar powered regenerative fuel cell, solar hydrogen production, thin film silicon solar cell), advanced solar thermal systems (solar cooling, solar heat pump, solar assisted drying, combined photovoltaic thermal or hybrid collector) and life cycle assessment and optimization of micro-power systems. He has also developed other renewable energy technology such as low speed wind turbine and pico-hydro system. He is listed in the 2020 Highly Cited Researchers by the Web of Science Group, Clarivate Analytics.

Session

August 07 | 10:35 AM- 12:20 PM | Session Chair: Dr. Devika Chithrani, University of Victoria, Canada & Dr. Woo Hyoung Lee, University of Central Florida, USA

Environmental Pollutions and Protections

ICNFA Keynote Lecture

August 07 | 12:40 PM - 01:25 PM | Session Chair: Dr. Domenico Lombardo, CNR - (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche), Italy

Hydrogen Production via Electrocatalysis: From Nanoclusters to Single Atoms
Dr. Lifeng Liu, Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Portugal

Lifeng Liu (Researcher ID: A-2522-2012, Orcid ID: 0000-0003-2732-7399) received his Bachelor degree in Applied Physics from Beijing Jiaotong University (2001), and both his Master (2004) and PhD (2007) degrees in Condensed Matter Physics from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He joined Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics (MPI-Halle) in 2007, first working as a postdoctoral researcher and then as a staff scientist, under the supervision of the late Prof. Ulrich Goesele. He started his independent research career in 2008 and became a Group Leader in 2009 at MPI-Halle. In 2011, he moved to the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) and set up a research group there, where his research now focuses on the development of new materials for use in electrochemical energy conversion and storage devices including electrolyzers, rechargeable batteries, supercapacitors, and photoelectrochemical cells. Lifeng Liu has been actively working on nanomaterials and nanostructures since 2002, and has published 160+ scientific papers in international peer-reviewed journals by far. He received several awards and honors such as the FCT Investigator Grant 2014, Young Researcher Prize of the Portuguese Electrochemical Society 2015, and the Emerging Investigator 2019 by the RSC journal “Chemical Communications”. He is now the Editorial Board Members of Advances in Nano Research and Materials Today Energy.

ICERT Keynote Lecture

August 07 | 01:25 PM - 02:10 PM | Session Chair: Dr. Domenico Lombardo, CNR - (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche), Italy

Nano and Microscale Light-based 3D Bioprinting for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine
Dr. Shaochen Chen, University of California, USA

Dr. Shaochen Chen is a Professor and Chair in the NanoEngineering Department and Professor in the Bioengineering Department at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He is the founding co-director of the Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Center at UCSD. Before joining UCSD, Dr. Chen had been a Professor and a Henderson Centennial Endowed Faculty Fellow in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin from 2001 to 2010. Between 2008 and 2010, he served as the Program Director for the Nanomanufacturing Program of the US National Science Foundation (NSF).

Dr. Chen’s primary research interests include: 3D printing and bioprinting, biomaterials and nanomaterials, stem cell and regenerative medicine, and tissue engineering. He has published over 160 papers in top journals.

Among his numerous awards, Dr. Chen received the NSF CAREER award, ONR Young Investigator award, and NIH Edward Nagy New Investigator Award. For his seminal work in 3D printing, bioprinting, and nanomanufacturing, he received the Milton C. Shaw Manufacturing Research Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in 2017. Dr. Chen is a Fellow of AAAS, AIMBE, ASME, SPIE, and ISNM. He is a co-founder of Allegro 3D, Inc. commercializing 3D bioprinting technologies.

Session

August 07 | 2:15 PM - 03:20 PM | Session Chair: Dr. Domenico Lombardo, CNR - (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche), Italy & Dr. Woo Hyoung Lee, University of Central Florida, USA

Energy Conversion and Management

Session

August 07 |3:20 PM - 03:55 PM| Session Chair: Dr. Devika Chithrani, University of Victoria, Canada

Biotechnology