Our 2013 February meeting was held at the Photonics Center at Boston University. Thanks go to Anlee Krupp and the NESM board for all their efforts in organizing this meeting. NESM is also very grateful to the speakers, BU Photonics Center staff and all our attendees. With the cooperation from all of us, we had a wonderful time among our NESM family. We also give warmest welcome to our youngest NESM member Bora: Welcome on board, Bora!
Our host, Anlee Krupp, gave us an impressive tour of the facilities. During the tour, everyone was amazed by this well-equipped Photonics Center: it has all levels of facilities aiming at nano-photonics research, ranging from photonics materials growth, photonics device fabrication, up to micro/nano-characterization. This tour was also quite educational, especially for our student and other junior members.
After dinner, Professor Daniela Nicastro from Brandeis University gave a talk on 3D electron tomography. At the beginning of Dr. Nicastro’s talk, she gave a very fundamental, though still straight-forward introduction into electron tomography combined with different specimen preparation methods. Then this presentation was followed by more thorough discussions of strengths and limitations of 3D electron tomography, along with a few exemplary applications to biological specimens. Dr. Nicastro concluded this wonderful talk by pointing out that cryo-ET in combination with some other related rapidly growing techniques is providing new views of the 3D structure of cellular organelles and molecular machines at unprecedented resolution.
The second talk was given by Professor Chuanhua Duan from Boston University about enhanced ion and molecule transport in nanofluidics. This presentation gave us a broad overview of nanofluidics physics, as well as exciting applications including power generation, flow control and enzyme sensing. Dr. Duan shared with us his in-depth research experience of nano-channels design, fabrication, and characterization. His enthusiasm for integration of fundamental science and various real-life applications was greatly appreciated.
All in all, this meeting was a great success. We had a good turnout and all attendees enjoyed the beautiful facilities and dynamic and intriguing presenters. We strongly encourage more student and young members to participate in our NESM meeting and relevant activities in the near future.
Huiliang Zhang, Ph.D.
Physical Sciences Director
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