The Fourth U.S.-Korea Forum on Nanotechnology: | ||||||||||||||
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Recommendations of the Fourth U.S.-Korea Forum on Nanotechnology: Sustainable Energy Adopted on April 27, 2007
During the past
five years, Korea and the United States have been supporting nanotechnology as a priority research area. The delegates
at the 5th meeting of the Korea-U.S. Joint Committee on Scientific and
Technological Cooperation (held on October 30th & 31st,
2002 in Seoul, Korea) agreed that establishment of a Korea-U.S. Forum on
Nanotechnology would be beneficial to promote and enhance research
collaborations in the field of nanotechnology among scientists and engineers
from both countries. Specifically, a joint Forum between Korea and the
U.S.will facilitate networking between the research communities and agencies of
both countries, enabling each side to exchange information and explore
opportunities for cooperative efforts. With this mission, we organized the
first Korea-U.S. Forum on Nanotechnology, via National Science Foundation (NSF)
funding, at Seoul, Korea on October 14-18th,
2003. As the Korean counterpart to NSF, participation was overseen and funded
by the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). The first Forum was
attended by 250 participants from both the countries and covered a broad range
of nano-research areas. The second forum, held in Los Angeles on February 17-19th,
2005, was a topical meeting focused on nano-manufacturing and
educational program development on nanotechnology. The Forum was attended by 32
experts in these areas. The third forum, held in Seoul on April 3rd & 4th,
2006,
was focused on two areas: (i) active devices and systems research in
nanotechnology, and (ii) health, environmental, and safety implications on
nanotechnology. The focus on active devices is a distinction from passive
systems which were included in the previous two Forums. In contrast to passive
structures, the active nanostructure changes its state during its operation, as
in nanoparticles and nanotube/wire. This forum was attended by 150 participants
from both countries. This fourth forum focused on sustainable nanotechnology- energy dealing with the design, synthesis, fabrication, and characterization of nano-materials as well as devices and system for energy applications such as fuel cells, batteries, hydrogen storage & production, and solar cells. The forum was held in Honolulu, Hawaii on April 26th and 27th 2007, and attended by 36 experts in energy related area. The following are the recommendations of this forum to ensure the partnership between these two countries for the continued success of nanotechnology-energy research, which could enable the production of cost-effective sources of energy and accelerate the transition towards clean, sustainable, and renewable energy resources that could complement current fossil energy resources. (1) We will continuously provide a common platform for the researchers in both countries to share experiences and expertise and enhance partnership in the field of nanotechnology. We recommend facilitating interactions between program managers of the areas of interest to the forum. (2) We recommend holding annual forums for increasing the bi-lateral exchanges in number of graduate students, post doctoral fellows, and young investigators. (3) Both NSF and MOST should provide a mechanism to allocate steady funding for the forum to continue this forum annually as well as collaborations between U.S.and Korean Institutions. (4) We encourage more industrial participations and under-represented groups at the forum. (5) Energy is a common global problem.Energy technology fused with nano-technology could help overcome the current obstacles in fossil energy. Both countries should promote this research area and enhance their collaborations. (6) We recommend to create website dedicated to US-Korea exchange program and designate contact personnel from each country to identify possible sources for financial support and to exchange technical information. The specific recommendations on the two groups are listed below: Group I (Solar Cells) Support and encourage material and device research for third generation photovoltaic research - (Tandem) dye sensitized solar cells - QD solar cells & multi exciton generation - Organic PV: molecular order and morphology - Experiments and correlated theory for charge transfer, injection, and transport - Theoretical understanding of electrons and phonons in nanomaterials - Development and application of cutting-edge nano characterization tools - Development of advanced transparent conducting oxides for next generation PV devices and electronics - Doping of QDs - New material design – new organic molecules and dye molecules - Increase emphasis on the computational discovery of new nanomaterials - Theoretical understanding of mesoscopic scale phenomena Other recommendations We need a strong leadership to pursue nano program for energy. Group II (Hydrogen Storage, Secondary Batteries, Fuel Cell etc.) 1) Hydrogen Production and Storage
2) Secondary Batteries
3) Fuel Cells In
view of the increasing activity on fuel cells in both Korea and U.S., hold a separate
bilateral workshop just on fuel cells, with participation of academia,
national labs and industry.
A) Fuel Cells – PEM
B) Fuel Cell - Biological
C) Fuel Cells – SOFCs
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