Tag Archives: Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS)

New system for imaging rare-earth doped nanoparticles

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The Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS; Québec, Canada) has issued a January 30,2024 news release (also on EurekAlert) announcing new work in the field of imaging, Note: Links have been removed,

Teams led by professors Jinyang Liang and Fiorenzo Vetrone from the Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) have developed a new system for imaging nanoparticles. It consists of a high-precision, short-wave infrared imaging technique capable of capturing the photoluminescence lifetimes of rare-earth doped nanoparticles in the micro- to millisecond range.

This groundbreaking discovery, which was published in the journal Advanced Science, paves the way for promising applications, particularly in the biomedical and information security fields.

Rare-earth elements are strategic metals that possess unique light-emitting properties that make them very attractive research tools in cutting-edge science. What’s more, the photoluminescence lifetime of nanoparticles doped with these ions has the advantage of being minimally affected by external conditions. As a result, measuring it through imaging provides data from which accurate and highly reliable information can be derived.

Although this field is seeing remarkable progress, existing optical systems for this type of measurement were less than ideal.

“Until now, existing optical systems have offered limited possibilities due to inefficient photon detection, limited imaging speed, and low sensitivity,” explains Professor Jinyang Liang, a specialist in ultrafast imaging and biophotonics.

To date, the most common technique for measuring the photoluminescence lifetime of rare-earth doped nanoparticles has involved counting time-correlated single photons.

“This method requires a large number of repeated excitations at the same location because the detector can only process a limited number of photons for each excitation,” says the study’s first author Miao Liu, a Ph.D. student in energy and materials science supervised by Profs. Liang and Vetrone.

However, the long photoluminescence lifetimes of rare-earth doped nanoparticles in the infrared spectrum, from hundreds of microseconds to several milliseconds, restrict the excitation’s repetition rate. As a result, the pixel dwelling time needed to build the photoluminescence intensity decay curve is much longer.

Pushing the limits

To overcome this challenge, Liang and Vetrone’s teams have combined streak optics with a high-sensitivity camera. The resulting device is called SWIR-PLIMASC (SWIR for short-wave infrared and PLIMASC for photoluminescence lifetime imaging microscopy using an all-optical streak camera). It vastly improves mapping of the optical properties of short-wave infrared photoluminescence lifetimes. It is the first high-sensitivity, high-speed SWIR imaging system in the optics field.

“It has several advantages,” says Miao Liu. “For instance, it responds to a wide spectral range, from 900 nm to 1700 nm, allowing photoluminescence to be detected at different wavelengths and/or spectral bands.”

The Ph.D. student adds that with the help of this device, photoluminescence lifetimes in the infrared spectrum, from microseconds to milliseconds, can be directly captured in one snapshot with a 1D imaging speed that can be tuned from 10.3 kHz to 138.9 kHz.

Finally, the operation that allocates the temporal information of photoluminescence to different spatial positions ensures that the entire process of 1D photoluminescence intensity decay can be recorded in a single snapshot, without repeated excitation. “You save time, but still get high sensitivity,” sums up Miao Liu.

Biomedical and security applications

The work carried out as part of this research will have a very tangible impact. In the biomedical field, the advances made possible by SWIR-PLIMASC could be used to fight cancer, believes Professor Fiorenzo Vetrone, whose expertise lies in nanomedicine.

“As our system applies to the temperature-based photoluminescence lifetime imaging of rare-earth ions, we believe that the data obtained could, for example, help to detect cancer cells even earlier and more accurately. The metabolism of those cells raises the temperature of the surrounding tissues,” says Professor Vetrone.

The innovative system can also be used to store information at enhanced security levels, more specifically to prevent documents and data from being falsified. Finally, in fundamental science, these unprecedented results will allow scientists to synthesize rare-earth nanoparticles with even more interesting optical properties.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Short-wave Infrared Photoluminescence Lifetime Mapping of Rare-Earth Doped Nanoparticles Using All-Optical Streak Imaging by Miao Liu, Yingming Lai, Miguel Marquez, Fiorenzo Vetrone, Jinyang Liang. Advanced Science DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202305284 First published: 06 January 2024

This paper is open access.

Can I have a beer with those carbon quantum dots?

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This research into using waste products from microbreweries comes from Québec, from a June 22, 2022 news item on ScienceDaily,

For a few years now, spent grain, the cereal residue from breweries, has been reused in animal feed. From now on, this material could also be used in nanotechnology! Professor Federico Rosei’s team at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) has shown that microbrewery waste can be used as a carbon source to synthesize quantum dots. The work, done in collaboration with Claudiane Ouellet-Plamondon of the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), was published in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal RSC Advances

…

A June 22, 2022 Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) news release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, explains what quantum dots have to do with wastage from beer (Note: Links have been removed),

Often considered as “artificial atoms”, quantum dots are used in the transmission of light. With a range of interesting physicochemical properties, this type of nanotechnology has been successfully used as a sensor in biomedicine or as LEDs in next generation displays. But there is a drawback. Current quantum dots are produced with heavy and toxic metals like cadmium. Carbon is an interesting alternative, both for its biocompatibility and its accessibility.

An eco-responsible approach

The choice of brewery waste as a source material came from Daniele Benetti, a postdoctoral fellow at INRS, and Aurel Thibaut Nkeumaleu, the master’s student at ÉTS who conducted the work. Basically, they wanted to carry out various experiments using accessible materials. This is how the scientists came to collaborate with the Brasseurs de Montréal to obtain their cereal residues.

“The use of spent grain highlights both an eco-responsible approach to waste management and an alternative raw material for the synthesis of carbon quantum dots, from a circular economy perspective,” says Professor Rosei.

The advantage of using brewery waste as a source of carbon quantum dots is that it is naturally enriched with nitrogen and phosphorus. This avoids the need for pure chemicals.

“This research was a lot of fun, lighting up what we can do with the beer by-products,” says Claudiane Ouellet-Plamondon, Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Multifunctional Construction Materials at ÉTS. “Moreover, ÉTS is located on the site of the former Dow brewery, one of the main breweries in Quebec until the 1960s. So there is a historical and heritage link to this work.”

An accessible method

In addition to using biobased material, the research team wanted to show that it was possible to produce carbon quantum dots with common means. The scientists used a domestic microwave oven to carbonize the spent grain, resulting in a black powder. It was then mixed with distilled water and put back into the microwave oven. A passage in the centrifuge and advanced filtration allowed to obtain the quantum dots. Their finished product was able to detect and quantify heavy metals, as well as other contaminants that affect water quality, the environment and health. 

The next steps will be to characterize these carbon quantum dots from brewery waste, beyond proof of concept. The research team is convinced that this nanotechnology has the potential to become sophisticated detection sensors for various aqueous solutions, even in living cells.

About the study

The paper “Brewery spent grain derived carbon dots for metal sensing,” by Aurel Thibaut Nkeumaleu, Daniele Benetti, Imane Haddadou, Michael Di Mare, Claudiane Ouellet-Plamondon, and Federico Rosei, was published on April 14, 2022, in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal RSC Advances. The study was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Quebec Centre for Advanced Materials (QCAM) and the Canada Research Chairs.

About INRS
INRS is a university dedicated exclusively to graduate level research and training. Since its creation in 1969, INRS has played an active role in Québec’s economic, social, and cultural development and is ranked first for research intensity in Québec. INRS is made up of four interdisciplinary research and training centres in Québec City, Montréal, Laval, and Varennes, with expertise in strategic sectors: Eau Terre Environnement, Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications, Urbanisation Culture Société, and Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie. The INRS community includes more than 1,500 students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty members, and staff.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Brewery spent grain derived carbon dots for metal sensing by Aurel Thibaut Nkeumaleu, Daniele Benetti, Imane Haddadou, Michael Di Mare, Claudiane M. Ouellet-Plamondon and Federico Rosei. RSC Adv., 2022,12, 11621-11627 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D2RA00048B First published: 14 Apr 2022

This paper is open access.

Canadian and Guadeloupean oysters: exposure to nanoplastics and arsenic

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A May 27, 2021 news item on phys.org describes research into oysters and nanoplastics,

Oysters’ exposure to plastics is concerning, particularly because these materials can accumulate and release metals which are then absorbed by the mollusks. According to a recent study published in the journal Chemosphere, the combined presence of nanoplastics and arsenic affects the biological functions of oysters. This study was conducted by the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) in Québec City and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) at the University of Bordeaux in France

…

A May 27, 2021 INRS news release (French language version here and an English language version on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, provides fascinating details,

The international research team chose to study arsenic, since it is one of the most common metals absorbed by the plastic debris collected from the beaches of Guadeloupe. “Oysters easily accumulate metals from the environment into their tissues. We therefore wanted to test whether the combined exposure to nanoplastics and arsenic would increase the bioaccumulation of this contaminant,” reported Marc Lebordais, the Master’s student in charge of the research.

The scientists proved that the bioaccumulation of arsenic does not increase when nanoplastics are also present. However, it remained higher in the gills of the Canadian Crassostrea virginica oyster [emphasis mine] than in the Isognomon alatus oyster, found in Guadeloupe. These results are the first to highlight the diverging sensitivity of different species. [emphasis mine]

Gene deregulation

In addition to bioaccumulation, the team also observed an overexpression of genes responsible for cell death and the number of mitochondria–a cell’s energy centres–in C. virginica. In I. alatus, the expression of these same genes was less significant.

“Evaluating the expression of genes involved in important functions, such as cell death and detoxification, gives us information on the toxicity of nanoplastics and arsenic on a cellular level,” explained the young researcher, who is co-directed by Professors Valérie Langlois of INRS and Magalie Baudrimont of the University of Bordeaux.

The food chain

The next step, after characterizing the presence of nanoplastics and arsenic in oysters, would be to study how these contaminants are transferred through the food chain.

“Analytical tools are currently being developed to quantify the presence of nanoplastics in biological tissues,” said Marc Lebordais. “Understanding the amount of nanoplastics in farmed oysters currently boils down to a technical issue.” ?

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Molecular impacts of dietary exposure to nanoplastics combined with arsenic in Canadian oysters (Crassostrea virginica) and bioaccumulation comparison with Caribbean oysters (Isognomon alatus) by Marc Lebordais, Juan Manuel Gutierrez-Villagomez, Julien Gigault, Magalie Baudrimont, and Valérie Langlois. Chemosphere Volume 277, August 2021, 130331 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.130331 First published online 19 March 2021.

This paper is open access.

Canadian and Italian researchers go beyond graphene with 2D polymers

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According to a May 20,2020 McGill University news release (also on EurkekAltert), a team of Canadian and Italian researchers has broken new ground in materials science (Note: There’s a press release I found a bit more accessible and therefore informative coming up after this one),

A study by a team of researchers from Canada and Italy recently published in Nature Materials could usher in a revolutionary development in materials science, leading to big changes in the way companies create modern electronics.

The goal was to develop two-dimensional materials, which are a single atomic layer thick, with added functionality to extend the revolutionary developments in materials science that started with the discovery of graphene in 2004.

In total, 19 authors worked on this paper from INRS [Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique], McGill {University], Lakehead [University], and Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, the national research council in Italy.

This work opens exciting new directions, both theoretical and experimental. The integration of this system into a device (e.g. transistors) may lead to outstanding performances. In addition, these results will foster more studies on a wide range of two-dimensional conjugated polymers with different lattice symmetries, thereby gaining further insights into the structure vs. properties of these systems.

The Italian/Canadian team demonstrated the synthesis of large-scale two-dimensional conjugated polymers, also thoroughly characterizing their electronic properties. They achieved success by combining the complementary expertise of organic chemists and surface scientists.

“This work represents an exciting development in the realization of functional two-dimensional materials beyond graphene,” said Mark Gallagher, a Physics professor at Lakehead University.

“I found it particularly rewarding to participate in this collaboration, which allowed us to combine our expertise in organic chemistry, condensed matter physics, and materials science to achieve our goals.”

Dmytro Perepichka, a professor and chair of Chemistry at McGill University, said they have been working on this research for a long time.

“Structurally reconfigurable two-dimensional conjugated polymers can give a new breadth to applications of two-dimensional materials in electronics,” Perepichka said.

“We started dreaming of them more than 15 years ago. It’s only through this four-way collaboration, across the country and between the continents, that this dream has become the reality.”

Federico Rosei, a professor at the Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre of the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) in Varennes who holds the Canada Research Chair in Nanostructured Materials since 2016, said they are excited about the results of this collaboration.

“These results provide new insights into mechanisms of surface reactions at a fundamental level and simultaneously yield a novel material with outstanding properties, whose existence had only been predicted theoretically until now,” he said.

About this study

“Synthesis of mesoscale ordered two-dimensional π-conjugated polymers with semiconducting properties” by G. Galeotti et al. was published in Nature Materials.

This research was partially supported by a project Grande Rilevanza Italy-Quebec of the Italian Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale, Direzione Generale per la Promozione del Sistema Paese, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Fonds Québécois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies and a US Army Research Office. Federico Rosei is also grateful to the Canada Research Chairs program for funding and partial salary support.

About McGill University

Founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1821, McGill is a leading Canadian post-secondary institution. It has two campuses, 11 faculties, 13 professional schools, 300 programs of study and over 40,000 students, including more than 10,200 graduate students. McGill attracts students from over 150 countries around the world, its 12,800 international students making up 31% per cent of the student body. Over half of McGill students claim a first language other than English, including approximately 19% of our students who say French is their mother tongue.

About the INRS
The Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) is the only institution in Québec dedicated exclusively to graduate level university research and training. The impacts of its faculty and students are felt around the world. INRS proudly contributes to societal progress in partnership with industry and community stakeholders, both through its discoveries and by training new researchers and technicians to deliver scientific, social, and technological breakthroughs in the future.

Lakehead University
Lakehead University is a fully comprehensive university with approximately 9,700 full-time equivalent students and over 2,000 faculty and staff at two campuses in Orillia and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Lakehead has 10 faculties, including Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Graduate Studies, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Law, Natural Resources Management, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Science & Environmental Studies, and Social Sciences & Humanities. In 2019, Maclean’s 2020 University Rankings, once again, included Lakehead University among Canada’s Top 10 primarily undergraduate universities, while Research Infosource named Lakehead ‘Research University of the Year’ in its category for the fifth consecutive year. Visit www.lakeheadu.ca

I’m a little surprised there wasn’t a quote from one of the Italian researchers in the McGill news release but then there isn’t a quote in this slightly more accessible May 18, 2020 Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche press release either,

Graphene’s isolation took the world by surprise and was meant to revolutionize modern electronics. However, it was soon realized that its intrinsic properties limit the utilization in our daily electronic devices. When a concept of Mathematics, namely Topology, met the field of on-surface chemistry, new materials with exotic features were theoretically discovered. Topological materials exhibit technological relevant properties such as quantum hall conductivity that are protected by a concept similar to the comparison of a coffee mug and a donut.  These structures can be synthesized by the versatile molecular engineering toolbox that surface reactions provide. Nevertheless, the realization of such a material yields access to properties that suit the figure of merits for modern electronic application and could eventually for example lead to solve the ever-increasing heat conflict in chip design. However, problems such as low crystallinity and defect rich structures prevented the experimental observation and kept it for more than a decade a playground only investigated theoretically.

An international team of scientists from Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (Centre Energie, Matériaux et Télécommunications), McGill University and Lakehead University, both located in Canada, and the SAMOS laboratory of the Istituto di Struttura della Materia (Cnr), led by Giorgio Contini, demonstrates, in a recent publication on Nature Materials, that the synthesis of two-dimensional π-conjugated polymers with topological Dirac cone and flats bands became a reality allowing a sneak peek into the world of organic topological materials.

Complementary work of organic chemists and surface scientists lead to two-dimensional polymers on a mesoscopic scale and granted access to their electronic properties. The band structure of the topological polymer reveals both flat bands and a Dirac cone confirming the prediction of theory. The observed coexistence of both structures is of particular interest, since whereas Dirac cones yield massless charge carriers (a band velocity of the same order of magnitude of graphene has been obtained), necessary for technological applications, flat bands quench the kinetic energy of charge carriers and could give rise to intriguing phenomena such as the anomalous Hall effect, surface superconductivity or superfluid transport.

This work paths multiple new roads – both theoretical and experimental nature. The integration of this topological polymer into a device such as transistors possibly reveals immense performance. On the other hand, it will foster many researchers to explore a wide range of two-dimensional polymers with different lattice symmetries, obtaining insight into the relationship between geometrical and electrical topology, which would in return be beneficial to fine tune a-priori theoretical studies. These materials – beyond graphene – could be then used for both their intrinsic properties as well as their interplay in new heterostructure designs.

The authors are currently exploring the practical use of the realized material trying to integrate it into transistors, pushing toward a complete designing of artificial topological lattices.

This work was partially supported by a project Grande Rilevanza Italy-Quebec of the Italian Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale (MAECI), Direzione Generale per la Promozione del Sistema Paese.

The Italians also included an image to accompany their press release,

Image of the synthesized material and its band structure Courtesy: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche

My heart sank when I saw the number of authors for this paper (WordPress no longer [since their Christmas 2018 update] makes it easy to add the author’s names quickly to the ‘tags field’). Regardless and in keeping with my practice, here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Synthesis of mesoscale ordered two-dimensional π-conjugated polymers with semiconducting properties by G. Galeotti, F. De Marchi, E. Hamzehpoor, O. MacLean, M. Rajeswara Rao, Y. Chen, L. V. Besteiro, D. Dettmann, L. Ferrari, F. Frezza, P. M. Sheverdyaeva, R. Liu, A. K. Kundu, P. Moras, M. Ebrahimi, M. C. Gallagher, F. Rosei, D. F. Perepichka & G. Contini. Nature Materials (2020) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-020-0682-z Published 18 May 2020

This paper is behind a paywall.

Clean up oil spills (on water and/or land) with oil-eating bacterium

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Quebec’s Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) announced an environmentally friendly way of cleaning up oil spills in an April 9, 2018 news item on ScienceDaily,

From pipelines to tankers, oil spills and their impact on the environment are a source of concern. These disasters occur on a regular basis, leading to messy decontamination challenges that require massive investments of time and resources. But however widespread and serious the damage may be, the solution could be microscopic — Alcanivorax borkumensis — a bacterium that feeds on hydrocarbons. Professor Satinder Kaur Brar and her team at INRS have conducted laboratory tests that show the effectiveness of enzymes produced by the bacterium in degrading petroleum products in soil and water. Their results offer hope for a simple, effective, and eco-friendly method of decontaminating water and soil at oil sites.

An April 8, 2018 INRS news release by Stephanie Thibaut, which originated the news item, expands on the theme,

In recent years, researchers have sequenced the genomes of thousands of bacteria from various sources. Research associate Dr.Tarek Rouissi poured over “technical data sheets” for many bacterial strains with the aim of finding the perfect candidate for a dirty job: cleaning up oil spills. He focused on the enzymes they produce and the conditions in which they evolve.

A. borkumensis, a non-pathogenic marine bacterium piqued his curiosity. The microorganism’s genome contains the codes of a number of interesting enzymes and it is classified as “hydrocarbonoclastic”—i.e., as a bacterium that uses hydrocarbons as a source of energy. A. borkumensis is present in all oceans and drifts with the current, multiplying rapidly in areas where the concentration of oil compounds is high, which partly explains the natural degradation observed after some spills. But its remedial potential had not been assessed.

“I had a hunch,” Rouissi said, “and the characterization of the enzymes produced by the bacterium seems to have proven me right!” A. borkumensis boasts an impressive set of tools: during its evolution, it has accumulated a range of very specific enzymes that degrade almost everything found in oil. Among these enzymes, the bacteria’shydroxylases stand out from the ones found in other species: they are far more effective, in addition to being more versatile and resistant to chemical conditions, as tested in coordination by a Ph.D. student, Ms. Tayssir Kadri.

To test the microscopic cleaner, the research team purified a few of the enzymes and used them to treat samples of contaminated soil. “The degradation of hydrocarbons using the crude enzyme extract is really encouraging and reached over 80% for various compounds,” said Brar. The process is effective in removing benzene, toluene, and xylene, and has been tested under a number of different conditions to show that it is a powerful way to clean up polluted land and marine environments.”

The next steps for Brar’s team are to find out more about how these bacteria metabolize hydrocarbons and explore their potential for decontaminating sites. One of the advantages of the approach developed at INRS is its application in difficult-to-access environments, which present a major challenge during oil spill cleanup efforts.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Ex-situ biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons using Alcanivorax borkumensis enzymes by Tayssir Kadri, Sara Magdouli, Tarek Rouissi, Satinder Kaur Brar. Biochemical Engineering Journal Volume 132, 15 April 2018, Pages 279-287 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bej.2018.01.014

This paper is behind a paywall.

In light of this research, it seems remiss not to mention the recent setback for Canada’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal quashed the approval as per this August 30, 2018 news item on canadanews.org. There were two reasons for the quashing (1) a failure to properly consult with indigenous people and (2) a failure to adequately assess environmental impacts on marine life. Interestingly, no one ever mentions environmental cleanups and remediation, which could be very important if my current suspicions regarding the outcome for the next federal election are correct.

Regardless of which party forms the Canadian government after the 2019 federal election, I believe that either Liberals or Conservatives would be equally dedicated to bringing this pipeline to the West Coast. The only possibility I can see of a change lies in a potential minority government is formed by a coalition including the NDP (New Democratic Party) and/or the Green Party; an outcome that seems improbable at this juncture.

Given what I believe to be the political will regarding the Trans Mountain pipeline, I would dearly love to see more support for better cleanup and remediation measures.

State-of-the-art biotech and nanophotonics equipment at Québec’s Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS)

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Canada Foundation for Innovation (a federal government funding agency) has awarded two infrastructure grants to Québec’s Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) or more specifically their Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centreaccording to an April 18, 2014 news item on Azonano,

Professor Marc André Gauthier and Professor Luca Razzari of the Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre have each been awarded large grants from the John R. Evans Leaders Fund of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) for the acquisition of state-of-the-art biotech and nanophotonics equipment.

To this funding will be added matching grants from the Ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur, de la Recherche, de la Science et de la Technologie (MESRST). These new laboratories will help us develop new approaches for improving health and information technologies, train the next generation of highly qualified high-tech workers, and transfer technology and expertise to local startups.

An April 17, 2014 INRS news release by Gisèle Bolduc, which originated the news item (Pour ceux qui préfèrent l’actualité en français) , provides more details,

Bio-hybrid materials

Professor Gauthier’snew Laboratory of Bio-Hybrid Materials (LBM) will enable him to tackle the numerous challenges of designing these functional materials and make it possible for the biomedical and biotech sectors to take full advantage of their new and unique properties. Professor Gauthier and his team will work on developing new bio organic reactions involving synthetic and natural molecules and improving those that already exist. They will examine the architecture of protein-polymer grafts and develop methods for adjusting the structure and function of bio-hybrid materials in order to evaluate their therapeutic potential.

Plasmonic nanostructures and nonlinear optics

Professor Luca Razzari will use his Laboratory of Nanostructure-Assisted Spectroscopy and Nonlinear Optics (NASNO Lab) to document the properties of plasmonic nanostructures, improve nanospectroscopies and explore new photonic nanodevices. He will also develop new biosensors able to identify very small numbers of biomarkers. This may have an important impact in the early diagnosis of several diseases such as cancer and life-threatening infectious diseases.Besides this, he will investigate a new generation of nanoplasmonic devices for information and communications technology applications.

Congratulations!

Nano and the energy crisis, a March 25, 2014 presentation by Federico Rosei in Vancouver, Canada

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ARPICO’s, Society of Italian Researchers and Professionals in Western Canada, is presenting a talk about the energy crisis and how nanoscience may help, which will be given by Federico Rosei, a nanoscientist based in Québec at the INRS (Institut national de la recherche scientifique). I don’t have much more information about the talk (from the March 4, 2014 ARPICO announcement),

Looming Energy Crisis & Possible Solutions
What is economically viable?
What is environmentally sustainable?
In the short term, in the long term…

Please join us for a presentation & lively discussion facilitated by

Federico Rosei, PhD
International award winning scientist, thinker and speaker

The exploration of the role of nanoscience in tomorrow’s energy solutions

There are more details about the speaker (from the ARPICO announcement),

Dr. Rosei’s research interests focus on the properties of nanostructured materials. Among numerous positions held, he is Canada Research Chair in Nanostructured Organic and Inorganic Materials, Professor & Director of INRS-Energy, Materials & Telecommunications, Universite du Quebec, Varennes (QC), and UNESCO Chair in Materials and Technologies for Energy Conversion, Saving and Storage. He has published over 170 articles in prestigious international journals and his publications have been cited over 4,500 times. He has received several awards, including the FQRNT Strategic Professorship, the Rutherford Memorial Medal in Chemistry from the Royal Society of Canada, and the Herzberg Medal from the Canadian Association of Physicists.

Dr. Rosei’s biographical notes have not been updat4ed as he has recently won two major awards as per my Feb. 4, 2014 posting about his E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship and my Jan. 27, 2014 posting about his 2014 Award for Research Excellence in Materials Chemistry from the Canadian Society for Chemistry.

Here are the event details,

Date & Time:      Tuesday, March 25, 2014, 7pm

Location:      Roundhouse Community Centre (Room C),
181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, BC
(Yaletown-Roundhouse Sky Train Station, C21 & C23 Buses, Parking $3)

Refreshments:      Complimentary—coffee and cookies

Admission & RSVP:      Admission is free.

Registration at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/looming-energy-crisis-possible-solutions-by-prof-federico-rosei-inrs-tickets-6582603745

I’m glad to see a talk about the energy crisis that’s geared to ways in which we might deal with it.

Federico Rosei (Québec nanoscientist) scores another honour, an E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship

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On the heels of last week’s announcement (featured in my Jan. 27, 2014 posting) that Federico Rosei of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) will be receiving the Canadian Society for Chemistry’s (CSC) 2014 Award for Research Excellence in Materials Chemistry comes this announcement (from a Feb. 4, 2014 news item on Azonano),

Federico Rosei, professor at the INRS Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre, is the recipient of an E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, one of the most prestigious honours awarded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). An internationally renowned researcher, Professor Rosei has made a name for himself through his pioneering work on advanced materials, which has enormous technological potential in electronics, photonics, life sciences and energy conversion.

The Feb. 3, 2014 INRS news release by Stéphanie Thibault, which originated the news item, describes the fellowship (Note: A link has been removed),

The Steacie Fellowship, which is granted for a two-year period and comes with a $250,000 research grant and $180,000 salary support, will allow Professor Rosei to explore new avenues and implement effective new strategies in the design, development, and characterization of multifunctional materials.

“Receiving the highly-coveted E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowshipis a true honour that inspires me to redouble my efforts to gain a greater understanding of the multiple properties of nanomaterials in order to contribute to scientific and technological innovation,” Professor Rosei said.

E.W.R Steacie Memorial Fellowships

Every year NSERC awards up to six E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowships in memory of Edgar William Richard Steacie, an outstanding chemist and research leader who made major contributions to the development of science in Canada. The Fellowships are awarded to enhance the career development of outstanding and highly promising Canadian university faculty by relieving them of teaching and administrative duties, so that they can devote all their time and energy to research.

Congratulations to Dr. Rosei.

L’actualité en français: http://www.emt.inrs.ca/actualites/attribution-dune-prestigieuse-bourse-steacie-au-professeur-federico-rosei