WEEKLY MEMO, September 29, 2008 Submit items for memo of October 6 2008 by 5 PM on FRIDAY, 10.03.08, to dstarewi@purdue.edu ****************** 1. ANNOUNCEMENTS ****************** 1.1: NONE ************* 2. NSAC NEWS ************* 2.1: NSAC meeting and picnic, October 1st, 5:30 pm, at Squirrel Park (southeast corner of State Street and Airport Road just to the west of Birck). NSAC (Nanotechnology Student Advisory Council) is holding its monthly meeting at Squirrel Park. A short meeting to discuss ways NSAC can help improve research at Birck will be followed by a picnic. All Birck students, faculty, and staff are invited to both the NSAC meeting and picnic. So that we can order enough food, please let us know if you are coming by signing-up on the following website: http://www.evite.com/app/publicUrl/ZJGPLWNGLQDBFPPCNEPP/NSAC_PICNIC. Please RSVP by Friday, Sept. 26th. For more information, visit <http://bncnano.freeforums.org/ <http://bncnano.freeforums.org/> > The NSAC committee, Caitlin Burger, Cara Smith, John Wilcox, and Laura Biedermann ******************** 3. TOURS/VISITORS ******************** 3.1: Monday, 09.29.08, 10:35AM: North Montgomery High School Physics Class, with Caitlin Burger. 3.2: Monday, 09.29.08, 10:45AM: Patrick Wang, with Tim Sands. ************************************************ 4. SEMINARS/WORKSHOPS see item #6 below for descriptions, abstracts, and bios ************************************************ 4.1: Wednesday, 10.01.08, 12:00PM, MRGN 129: Ethics and Science Discussion, ³Ethics on the Frontiers of Livestock Science,² by Dr. Paul Thompson, WW. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural, Food, and Community Ethics, Michigan State University. 4.2: Wednesday, 10.01.08, 5:30PM, MRGN 121: Bioethics Seminar Series, ³The Opposite of Human Enhancement: Nanotechnology and the Blind Chicken Problem,² Dr. Paul Thompson, WW. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural, Food, and Community Ethics, Michigan State University. 4.3: Thursday, 10.02.08, 8:30AM, BRK 1001: ³Control of nanogap dimensions in selectively etched nanowire heterostructures,² by Manuel DaSilva; defense presentation. 4.4: Thursday, 10.02.08, 10:30AM, BRK 1001: ³Self-assembly of Nanostructures on AFM Probes and Their Applicability to In Situ Measurements and Manipulations of Soft Biomaterials,² by Mehdi M. Yazdanpanah, ElectroOptions Research Institute and Nanotechnology Center, University of Louisville, and NaugaNeedles LLC. 4.5: Mark your calendars: Friday, 10.10.08, 9:00AM-3:00PM, Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship: ³Consumers and Technology Symposium.² 4.6: 6th International Nanomedicine and Drug Delivery Symposium, Saturday and Sunday, 10.18 and 10.19.08, Toronto, Canada. REGISTER TODAY! http://www.nanodds.org. Registration spaces are limited! Registration deadline: September 30th, 2008. 4.7: 2009 World Congress on Computer Science and Information Engineering (CSIE 2009), 03.31.09 to 04.02.09, Los Angeles/Anaheim, USA. http://world-research-institutes.org/conferences/CSIE/2009 **************** 5. OPPORTUNITIES **************** 5.1: New collaborative funding opportunity announced through the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI), a NIH-funded institute led by the Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) and Purdue University West Lafayette. This new seed grant opportunity, similar in scope to the former CBR program, is entitled Collaboration in Biomedical/Translational Research (CBR/CTR) Pilot Grant Program. The CBR/CTR awards are to foster collaborations between researchers at IU and Purdue to conduct translational research projects that have the potential to develop into larger, continuing, externally funded research programs. Proposed projects should have participation by two (or more) principal investigators representing at least two of the sponsoring affiliates for this program. Sponsoring affiliates include: IU School of Medicine (IUSM); IUPUI (non-IUSM); IU Bloomington; Purdue University (West Lafayette). The program will provide a total of $600,000 to fund collaborative proposals of up to $75,000 each. The deadline for receipt of proposals is December 1. Guidelines, are available, complete with all forms and submission instructions, at http://www.indianactsi.org/funding/cbrctr <http://www.indianactsi.org/funding/cbrctr> . And at the Purdue OVPR Seed Grants website at http://www.purdue.edu/Research/vpr/funding/seedgrants.shtml <http://www.purdue.edu/Research/vpr/funding/seedgrants.shtml> . ******************************* 6. ABSTRACTS/BIOS/DESCRIPTIONS for seminars/workshops lists above ******************************* 6.1: Wednesday, 10.01.08, 12:00PM, MRGN 129: Ethics and Science Discussion, ³Ethics on the Frontiers of Livestock Science,² by Dr. Paul Thompson, WW. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural, Food, and Community Ethics, Michigan State University. We¹re excited to remind you of a new ethics and science opportunity this year: the Ethics and Science seminar series. These small informal lunch-time seminars are an excellent opportunity for students to engage in dialogue with our distinguished guests. This will be available on our website at www.purdue.edu/bioethics <http://www.purdue.edu/bioethics <http://www.purdue.edu/bioethics> > . 6.2: Wednesday, 10.01.08, 5:30PM, MRGN 121: Bioethics Seminar Series, ³The Opposite of Human Enhancement: Nanotechnology and the Blind Chicken Problem,² Dr. Paul Thompson, WW. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural, Food, and Community Ethics, Michigan State University. More information is available on our website at www.purdue.edu/bioethics <file:////www.purdue.edu/bioethics <file://localhost/www.purdue.edu/bioethics> >. 6.3: Thursday, 10.02.08, 10:30AM, BRK 1001: ³Self-assembly of Nanostructures on AFM Probes and Their Applicability to In Situ Measurements and Manipulations of Soft Biomaterials,² by Mehdi M. Yazdanpanah, ElectroOptions Research Institute and Nanotechnology Center, University of Louisville, and NaugaNeedles LLC. ABSTRACT: Supercooled liquid gallium (Ga) spontaneously alloys at room temperature with metal thin films (including Ag, Co, Pt, Fe) resulting in rapid self-assembly of nanostructures (including Ag2Ga needles, CoGa3 rods, and Ga6Pt and Ga3Fe plates). Individual Ga-M nanos-tructures have been grown at selected locations on surfaces and directed to grow in a desired direction by first coating the surface (e.g. AFM tip) with one of the above metals, dipping the surface into a melted Ga droplet, and retracting the surface normal to the droplet forming a meniscus. The nanostructure then grows and is oriented along the axis of the meniscus. This is now used routinely by our group to form very flexible, rugged and securely attached Ag2Ga nanoneedles of constant diameter (in the range of 25 to 500 nm) and from 5-110 microns long on AFM tips, as well as on tipless cantilevers, resonating fork, sharpened tungsten probes, glass micropipettes and sidewalls of vertically micromachined silicon and glass. The nanoneedles have stiffnesses that are well matched to the viscoelastic properties of complex fluids and biological materials, are electrically conductive and have had their sidewalls coated with a thin insulator by a subsequent operation. We are in the process of developing, evaluating and integrating this technology into platforms for combined electrochemical and viscoelastic probing of live cells, bacterial biofilms and subcellular organelles within live cells. Specific progress towards this system includes our recent demonstrations of using Ag2Ga nanoneedle-tipped probes (1) to make precise AFM measurements of surface tension, contact angle, evaporation rate, and shear viscosity of polymeric liquids, (2) to draw individual polymeric and protein nanofibers, and (3) to puncture individual live cells and measure viscoelastic response (by AFM force-distance spectroscopy) as the probe punctures the cell membrane, is extended all the way through the cytosol, and then retracted from the cell. BIO: Mehdi M. Yazdanpanah is a Research Faculty Scientist at the University of Louisville (UofL) where his current research is devoted to developing applications of the selectively nanostructured alloys for probing and nanomanipulation of soft materials and live single cells. He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering with honors from UofL (2006), where he studied directed self-assembly of nanostructures via Ga-M reactions. He also holds the B.S. degree in Physics from Sharif University of Technology (1998) and the M.S. degree in Physics from the Beheshti University, Iran (2001), where he designed and built a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). Recently, he founded NaugaNeedles LLC where he is developing commercial products and applications of the selectively grown Ga-M nanostructures. HOST: Ron Reifenberger/Laura Biederman (66494, rr@physics.purdue.edu) 6.4: Mark your calendars: Friday, October 10, 2008, 9:00AM-3:00PM, Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship: ³Consumers and Technology Symposium.² Explore the effect of the information technology age on the consumer Discover opportunities for collaboration on issues concerning technology and its influence on the service economy Keynote Speaker: A. ³Parsu² Parasuraman, School of Business, University of Miami: ³Technology Readiness and Its Implications for Technology-based Customer Service² Faculty Presenters: Randy Woodson, Provost; Richard Buckius, Vice President for Research¹ Shannon Amberg, College of Agriculture; Richard Feinberg, College of Consumer and Family Sciences; Athula Kulatunga, College of Technology; Joseph Pekny, Department of Chemical Engineering; Gene Spafford, CERIAS Poster Session: Graduate students are invited to present research related to consumers and technology. Prizes awarded. Contact mailto:%20wailor@purdue.edu <mailto:%20wailor@purdue.edu> to register for the poster session. Registration required by October 6; There is NO CHARGE to attend the symposium. Lunch is included. For information and to register, visit: www.conf.purdue.edu/CTS <http://www.conf.purdue.edu/CTS> 6.5: 2009 World Congress on Computer Science and Information Engineering (CSIE 2009), 03.31.09 to 04.02.09, Los Angeles/Anaheim, USA. http://world-research-institutes.org/conferences/CSIE/2009 CALL FOR PAPERS, INVITED SESSIONS & EXPO: CSIE 2009 conference proceedings will be published by the IEEE Computer Society and all papers in the proceedings will be included in EI Compendex, ISTP, and IEEE Xplore. CSIE 2009 intends to be a global forum for researchers and engineers to present and discuss recent advances and new techniques in computer science and information engineering. CSIE 2009 consists of the following Technical Symposiums: Communications & Mobile Computing Symposium; Computer Applications Symposium; Computer Design & VLSI Symposium; Data Mining & Data Engineering Symposium; Intelligent Systems Symposium; Multimedia & Signal Processing Symposium; Software Engineering Symposium Invited sessions offer focused discussions on specialized topics. A prospective invited session organizer should send a proposal, including a session title, a short synopsis, bio-sketch of the organizer with a publication list, to the appropriate Symposium Chair (visit the conference website for more details). In addition to research papers, CSIE 2009 also seeks exhibitions of modern products and equipment for computer science and information engineering. Important Dates: Paper/Abstract Submission Deadline: September 30, 2008; Review Notification: November 15, 2008; Final Papers and Author Registration Deadline: December 7, 2008 Organizing Committee: General Chair: Adrian Martin, World Research Institutes, USA; Program Chair: Mark Burgin, University of California at Los Angeles, USA; Symposium Chairs: Masud H Chowdhury, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA; Chan H. Ham, University of Central Florida, USA; Simone Ludwig, University of Saskatchewan, Canada; Weilian Su, Naval Postgraduate School, USA; Sumanth Yenduri, University of Southern Mississippi, USA. Publicity Chairs: Nitin Upadhyay, Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), India; and David C. Wong, US Environmental Protection Agency, USA. *************** 7. JOB POSTINGS *************** 7.1: Industrial Postdoctoral Fellow Position in Nanofabrication and Nanotechnology, PicoCal; Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan; Phone: 734-913-2608; Fax: 734-372-6318. Overview: A Postdoc position is available in December 2008/January 2009 to develop MEMS probes for AFM/SPM, bio and other applications including some very exciting applications in nanotech. Research in collaboration with major universities including University of Michigan and Michigan State. Opportunities for publications. Possibility to serve as a PI on government grants. Founders are professors at major universities. Requirements: Candidate must have prior microfab expertise. Work will be conducted primarily in cleanroom of the U. of Mich. Microfab. Process development and characterization skills, ability to communicate well, write proposals and reports, work independently, circuit design and testing, design and execution of experiments are essential. Prior experience with SPM tools, labview, working at the U of M clean-room, PhD in Electrical Engineering highly desirable. Minimum 2-year commitment. Responsibilities: Mirofabrication, experimental set-up, product testing, AFM/SPM operation, labview programming, product quality control, publication writing, proposal grant writing, possibility for grant management. Application: Send resume and contact information of 3 references to angelo@picocal.com 7.2: Senior MEMS Engineer; RheoSense, Inc.; Location: San Ramon, California; Phone: 925-866-3801; Fax: 925-866-3804. Overview: RheoSense is a worldwide leader in MEMS sensor technology for precision flow management. Our patented viscosity sensor is an enabling technology for instrumentation and flow control and is successfully implemented in a growing number of applications. We are looking for a highly motivated individual to contribute to our continued growth and success. This position involves development of MEMS products and processing in a laboratory environment and coordination of the transfer of product and process to larger scale production. Requirements: B.S. or higher in Electrical Engineering or similar discipline with a proven track record of MEMS process development and project management for at least five years. An excellent knowledge of MEMS processes, and sensor design and performance. A willingness to roll up your sleeves and an enthusiasm for your chosen work. The desire to play a leadership role in a small team of engineers dedicated to the goal of advancing the future of fluid sensor technology. Responsibilities: Design and conduct experiments for process development and improvement. Develop processes and implement tooling and equipment for scaling up production. Maintain accurate documentation of experiments and processes. Plan and coordinate product/process transfer from an R&D lab to a MEMS foundry. Work with and in support of our Senior Process Engineer. Application: If you are qualified for the requirements stated above, please send your resume and salary requirements to hr@rheosense.com. Competitive salary and benefits are offered. 7.3: Bio-Mechanical Engineer at Northridge, CA. Job Description: Work closely with, and report directly to, the Director of Engineering in fast-paced startup environment to provide mechanical and electrical design expertise for the development of the company's biomedical device products. This could include designing, testing and validation of new product, materials, and technologies. Evaluate and qualify vendors for product components; design new microcapillary and microfluidic BioMEMS components; responsible for drawing, revising, maintaining CAD drawings and electrical schematics to document product design; timely and accurate record-keeping. Requirements: Minimum MS degree in Biomedical Engineering, EE, ME, Electro-mechanical engineering or Physics; PhD preferred. 0-5 yrs engineering experience developing scientific measurement equipment, preferably involving fluid flow in microfluidic and microcapillary components; silicon & glass MEMS components. Working knowledge of mechanical design CAD software, such as AutoCAD; working knowledge of electrical CAD software, such as PCAD. Maintain accurate and detailed documentation throughout all phases of research and development. Ability to perform multiple tasks efficiently and under self-direction; be able to prioritize tasks based on company requirements. Excellent language and technical writing skills in English. Computer literate: skilled with word processor, spreadsheet and e-mail software. Ability to work closely with other staff within a team environment. Special requirements: Must be able to sit/stand 8 hours per day. Bend/stoop/reach on a regular basis during the work day. Contact: ctull@theracellinc.com