The NANOTR-III: Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Conference is being held at
Bilkent University this week. Running from June 11-14, 2007, the conference opened Monday
morning with opening remarks from Prof. Salim Çıracı, of the Physics Department, Prof.
Nüket Yetiş, the Acting President of TÜBİTAK,
Dr. Ahmet Tıktık, the Undersecretary of the State Planning Organization and Prof. İhsan
Doğramacı, Chairman of Bilkent's Board of Trustees.
Prof. Çıracı pointed out that the new National Nanotechnology Research Center (UNAM)
here at Bilkent, is expected to be completed in August of this year and emphasized that it
will be a resource for universities and industry throughout Turkey. Prof. Yetiş from
TÜBİTAK said that in the near future, nanotechnology will have a greater impact on our
lives than the Internet does now and that there will be improvements to technology because
of nanotechnology that are unimaginable right now. Dr. Tıktık discussed the effects of
nanotechnoloy and its effects on the Turkish economy while Prof. Doğramacı's remarks
highlighted the important role that nanotechnology has in our lives. Prof. Doğramacı
said that "nanotechnology, which charms today's contemporary world, is the
combination of resources from physics, chemistry and biology to create atomic-sized
systems and materials, and is a new world of evolution for Bilkent." He summarized by
saying that the endeavor of undertaking nanotechnology research at Bilkent is "a
marriage made in heaven" because Bilkent means "city of science" and was
founded on the principle of pursuing excellence in science, technical knowledge and art.
In the opening plenary talk by Dr. John Pethica, from the Centre for Adaptive
Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN) at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, Prof.
Pethica emphasized that science is "inventive, interesting people coming together and
doing what they like to do" in a place where people come first. From this, he said,
the program of research follows. He also pointed out the plethora of talent in Turkey with
regard to nanotechnology and hinted that to generate revolutionary science, one must not
stick to a path or plan, but look for problems and hard questions to tackle.
Over the three-day conference, 180 paper presentations in nanoscience, nanotechnology,
nanobiotechnology and nanomedicine will be made. The last day of the conference will
include three panel discussions on the role of nanotechnology in the fields of defense,
the textile industry and medical sectors. The plenary talks are being held at the Concert
Hall and the conference program and detailed information is available at the conference
web site http:// www.nanotr.org.tr
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