Nanoday 2016 – The 3rd Annual Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Symposium of UNAM took place at UNAM Conference Hall on the 26th May 2016. This annual event, being organized since 2014, features eminent scientists from nanotechnology and nanoscience related fields. This year Nanoday featured Prof. Samuel I. Stupp (Northwestern University), Prof. Bharat Bushan (Ohio State University), Prof. Nicholas A. Peppas (The University of Texas at Austin), Prof. Qihua Xiong (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) and Prof. Ali Khademhosseini (Harvard University) as the keynote speakers. The annual Nanoday events are open to public and each year many undergraduate and graduate students as well as scientists and researchers have the opportunity to meet the guest keynote speakers. Also a poster session, along with NanoPicture Contest, is organized to showcase the work of graduate students every year.
This year’s program broke the registration record with 450 guests registered from all over the country. The first talk was given by Prof. Xiong on his laboratory’s recent findings in the area of laser-enabled cooling systems. The following lecture was delivered by eminent scientist Prof. Stupp on design-synthesis and utilization of peptide nanomaterials for biomedicine and energy. After the lunch and poster presentations, Prof. Peppas gave his talk on polymeric biomaterials, which was followed by Prof. Bhushan’s lecture on nanotribology and nanomechanics of bioinspired materials. Nanoday lectures were completed with the final seminar by Prof. Khademhosseini on organ-on-a-chip applications.
The program ended with an award ceremony for Nanopicture Contest and the Best Poster Awards. This year Dr. Aslı Çelebioğlu (Bilkent University, UNAM) won the NanoPicture Contest, with İsmail Bilican (Aksaray University) and Abba Usman Saleh (Bilkent University, MSN, UNAM) being the runner-up. Yusuf Keleştemur (Bilkent University, MSN, UNAM) (winner), Ebru Şahin Kehribar (Bilkent University, MSN, UNAM) (runner-up) and Egemen Deniz Eren (Bilkent University, MSN, UNAM) (runner-up) received the best poster awards. NanoPicture Contest applications were voted by the UNAM Principle Investigators, while the Best Poster Awards were selected by an independent Scientific Committee. This year, as an optional additional activity for the guests, UNAM OpenHouse was also organized to give lab tours at UNAM right after Nanoday.