Summer School on Nanoscience for Master and PhD students
“There is still plenty of room at the bottom!”
August 24-28, 2009 - Summer school
Fifty years ago, Nobel laureate Richard Feynman presented a visionary speech at the occasion of a meeting of the American Physical Society. Feynman addressed the challenges for future generations of scientists, using the phrase that 'there is plenty of room at the bottom', indicating that new scientific discoveries could be expected when studying and manipulating matter at the atomic level. Feynman stated that 'in principle nothing prevents us from working with individual atoms. The reason we haven' t done this yet is that we are too big'. Five decades later, nanoscience has risen to this challenge: scanning probe microscopes have revealed the atomic world in unprecedented detail; single atoms and molecules have been manipulated and artificial structures have been built, atom by atom or molecule by molecule; there is an increased understanding of electricity, magnetism, superconductivity, and enzymatic and catalytic properties at the nanometer or single particle level; nanometer-sized clusters can be prepared with exotic contents; supramolecular chemistry, the science of molecule-based assemblies, paved the way to rational and predictable self-assembly routes to (nano)materials.
This Summer School aims at providing Master students and PhD students with an overview of the current state-of-the-art in nanophysics and nanochemistry. Renowned experts in the field will present in an accessible way the most up to date findings and understanding of various aspects of nanoscience. The School aims at a strong and informal interaction between students and teachers with sufficient time for discussion and social activities. The courses will be organized in the historic setting of the Campusbibliotheek Arenberg, which is the library of the Faculty of Science in a splendidly restored convent.
The Faculty of Science of the KU Leuven invites you to participate in this Summer School and to get immersed in the exciting field of nanoscience. You will discover that there is still plenty of room at the bottom!
The School directors
Steven De Feyter, Peter Lievens, Kristiaan Temst, Margriet Van Bael
Programme
- The programme will consist of morning and afternoon sessions with 2 lectures in each session. Evenings are reserved for social activities and for an informal poster session (on Tuesday) during which the participants can present and discuss their own research work or plans.
- Speakers
- The summerschool counts for 4 ECTS credits. Students can acquire these if they participate in the evaluation and if their home university agrees. KU Leuven students can take the course in their ISP of 2009-2010: G0U28A, if they have the approval of the programme director. In order to obtain the credits the students will every day receive a questionnaire related to the topics discussed during the seminars.
Evaluation
In order to qualify for the three credit points, the students need to attend at least 16 out of the 18 lectures.For evaluation purposes, each student will write a paper (in English, between ten and fifteen pages) related to one of the presentations at the summer school.The students can freely choose the presentation on which they will work. This paper should contain an introduction to the topic, an overview of the state of the art in the research domain, an overview of the most important relevant experimental techniques and theoretical methods and insights, the most important results presented at the summer school and a vision on future developments in the relevant research area.The paper will not be limited to material presented at the school, but students should carry out additional literature research.The plan, contents, global vision and technical quality of the paper will be graded by the school organizers and the relevant speaker.The paper needs to be submitted in electronic form (by e-mail to the school organizers) at latest by October 1st, 2009.
Accomodation
The rooms reserved for the summer school are located at the student residency Arenbergwoonwijk, studentenwijk arenberg 10, 3001 Heverlee, on walking distance from the venue where the summerschool takes place. All the rooms are single rooms. Bed clothes will be available : sheets, blanket, towel and soap. Shower and toilet facilities are shared. Breakfast will be provided at a student restaurant nearby.
The rooms will be available from Sunday evening till Friday morning.
Registration
Fee with accomodation is 300 euro.
This includes a room in a student residency, breakfast, lunch, a bike, coffee break, social programme and course material.
Fee without accomodation is 100 euro.
This includes lunch, coffeebreaks, social programme and course material.
Registration via our registration tool is only completed after payment of the registration fee.
Accountnr. 432-0000011-57 KU Leuven, krakenstraat 3, B-3000 Leuven
Swift code : KRED BE BB
IBAN : BE09 4320 0000 1157
! Important: don't forget to mention the reference number: 400/0003/08823
The participants must be insured by their home university. The KU Leuven does not accept any liability for students other than students registered at the KU Leuven for a fulltime programme.
Registration for this summer school is no longer possible.
Join our facebook group and meet other students that will participate in the summerschool!
More information
Ms Bieke Dutoit
Faculty of Science
Administrative and Support Services
Kasteelpark Arenberg 11 box 2100
3001 Leuven (Heverlee)
tel. + 32 16 32 85 57
fax + 32 16 32 19 95
Take a look at the web page of our other summer school about Metabolomics.
