报告题目：The story of nanotechnology and how size really does matter
时间：2019年4月8日18点
地点：DJ103
报告人：Dr. Colm Durkan
Reader in Nanoscale Engineering Academic Division: Electrical Engineering
Research Group: Solid State Electronics and Nanoscale Science
报告人简介：
Colm Durkan is a Reader in Nanoscale Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He obtained his degree and PhD in Physics from Trinity College Dublin during which time he designed and constructed the first scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM) in the country, and made significant advances in our understanding of the mechanisms behind image formation in such systems. He then spent a year in Konstanz, Germany working in collaboration with ZEISS on the construction of a commercial microscope system.
In 1997 he moved to the University of Cambridge, initially as a research associate in the Nanoscale Science group, and since 2000, as a faculty member. During this time he has led a research group consisting of around 10 members, been head of the Nanoscience centre for two years (2009-2010), published over 60 papers, given over 100 talks, written a successful textbook on Nanoelectronics, and developed several scanning-probe microscopes and new measurement techniques.
Colm has secured funding from and collaborated with several leading companies as well as government funding agencies, to the tune of over £3 Million in the past few years. He lectures and teaches in electronics, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics and nanotechnology. He is on the editorial board of Ultramicroscopy and Imaging & Microscopy, and is a fellow of Girton College, Cambridge and the Institute of Physics.
报告摘要：
This presentation will cover two aspects:
Nanotechnology is a buzz word many of us have heard but are uncertain as to what it really means. It is an area of research that generated an enormous amount of hype in the early 2000s, and since then has touched on many aspects of our everyday lives without our even realizing. It is a field that brings together aspects of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering and medicine. Although it is recognized that it was kick-started by the invention of the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) in the early 1980s, there are examples of applications of nanotechnology, albeit unwittingly, going back Millenia. Size Really Does Matter: The Nanotechnology Revolution gives an account of the origins of the field, presented from the standpoint of fundamental science. It shows how nanotechnology is, in fact, an inevitable consequence of our desire to make ever smaller things.
How size really does matter tells the story of the development of nanotechnology starting with medieval times and the beginnings of the scientific method, to an overview of classical science and then moves onto how the discovery of quantum mechanics at the turn of the 20th century turned all of this on its head. This opens the window into the fact that small (i.e. nanometre-sized) objects behave differently to larger objects, which is the founding principle of nanotechnology. There are detailed discussions on nanomaterials and how the properties of materials can be tuned by changing their size, with plenty of everyday examples; how we explore and see nanostructures, as they are too small to see using conventional microscopes; how nanotechnology has revolutionized the electronics and semiconductor industry, how it is being used in medicine to diagnose and treat disease and finally, on the risks associated with the uncharted properties of highly-reactive nanoparticles. It is firmly rooted in fact and works to dispel the myths and unravel the truth about this branch of science and technology that has already touched many aspects of our lives.