Nano-symposium: New knowledge, inspiration and networking
A two-day nanoscience symposium at SDC recently attracted around 70 researchers, PhDs and Master’s degree students.
The symposium was kicked off on 2 Septemper and initiated with the purposes of sharing knowledge and inspiration, exploring opportunities for new collaborations and also giving the Master’s degree students a unique possibility to get an insight into the many exiting research directions in the nanoscience area and to further support their curiosity, explains Morten Foss, Principal Coordinator for the Nanoscience theme at SDC, who was behind the event.
“For the professors here, it has been great to meet and find out what kind of work the other participants do first hand. Sometimes you think you know what a colleague is working on, but in fact you are only aware of part of the ongoing research. I have identified good research matches with some of my Danish colleagues still not actively involved in the SDC programme and personally, I have met several new potential collaborators at the Nanoscience Center in the field of bio-nanointerfaces and nanomedicine. I will setup visits during my next visit to China in November.”
The coffee breaks are important
“Practically every time I join conferences or symposiums it pays off. Even though it might seem like a lot of sitting and listening, this is where you find inspiration and new contacts. The coffee breaks are important. The presentations are often a starting point for the conversations you have during the coffee breaks, where you have opportunities to pose further questions related to the presentation, but also just small talking, which makes it easier to continue the academic exchange the next time you meet,” says associate professor from the University of Copenhagen, Tue Hassenkam, who will also be teaching the Master’s degree students on the first course of semester “Unifying concepts in Nanoscience”.
Using the tools of nanoscience
For Master’s degree student, Dane Alexander Shennan, this was the first time he attended a symposium with such a diverse set of presentations, the first day focusing on physics and the second day focusing more so on biology. One presentation that caught Dane’s interest was Tue Hassenkam’s presentation on “Origin of Life from a Nanoperspective”.
“Tue’s presentation was interesting. I think it is exciting when you use the tools that are available within nanoscience, such as the Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), which is used to characterise the surfaces of objects.”
Dane will commence his thesis project in under a year and he has already begun considering who might be a suitable and available supervisor.
