AAAS 2010 Annual Meeting Wrap Up
Hello, I am writing from the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Diego, which just concluded moments ago. This is one of the longest running scientific meetings in the United States dating back to 1848.
This year’s theme was Bridging Science and Society. There are many fascinating thematic sessions here delving into all aspects of science, from undergraduate education, to how we can create a zero carbon production energy economy, to whether neutrinos are the reason for the existence of life, to the ethical and policy implications of the intelligence of dolphins. Needless to say, it is my first time at this great meeting and I find it to be a fascinating and thought provoking conference.
Dr. S. Thomas Picraux of Los Alamos National Lab organized a session on “Nanotechnology: Will Nanomaterials Revolutionize Energy Applications”. This was a fascinating session, kicked-off by Dr. Arthur Nozik of the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) in Golden, CO. He discussed how quantum structures may be used in the novel solar cells, including those using multiple-exciton generation (MEG) and related concepts in quantum dots. Prof. David Cahill from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) discussed the challenges in harnessing the enormous quantity of wasted heat energy generated worldwide by using nanostructures in thermoelectric and other thermal conversion devices.
My talk, entitled “Industrial Scale Implementation of Nanomaterials: A Case Study in Solar Energy” gave a broad overview of the various types of nanostructures being considered in future photovoltaic applications, a detailed discussion of our work on nanostructured solar cells, and an overview of the manufacturing challenges and requirements that must be considered if we are to develop novel technologies with high efficiency and low cost. Incidentally, in a separate session Prof. Nathan Lewis from the California Institute of Technology made the point that if we are to help curb global warming caused by green house gases using solar photovoltaics, we need to develop not only low cost photovoltaic technologies but also ones that require minimal energy during manufacture. The session continued with Dr. Julia Phillips from Sandia National Lab, who discussed the opposite problem of energy generation, energy utilization, by describing the potential ways of using nanotechnology to improve the performance of light emitting diodes (LED). Finally, Prof. Yi Cui from Stanford University focused on the problem of energy storage by highlighting his group’s recent work on nanowire electrodes for batteries and flexible nanostructure papers for ultra-capacitors.
The session ended with a brief panel discussion in which we were asked about topics such as water utilization in manufacturing and costs of nanomaterials in the future. It was a fun discussion.
Other highlights of the conference included a plenary talk by Eric Langer giving a scorecard on the Obama administrations 1st year with regards to science & technology policy, a session on nano-bio-technology, and a plenary talk on science below the sea by Maria McNutt, director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Thanks for your continued interest and as always I look forward to any thoughts and feedback.
Great scientific event that covered a broad range of imperative topics, indeed. Thank you for sharing.