zum Inhalt
Header Image

03: The Risks and Opportunities of Nanotechnology

-
Hauptschule
Seminar /
in englischer Sprache

Nanotechnologies comprise a range of technologies that use materials on an incredibly small scale. One nanometre is one millionth of a millimetre. Materials on this small scale display properties different from „bigger“ particles (eg: greater reactivity and mobility in the human body) and are increasingly being used to create new products or applications, such as antibacterial socks or transparent sunscreen creams.
Because of these different properties, nanotechnologies and nanomaterials are increasingly seen as drivers of economic growth. Most countries and trading blocks are developing and funding research and innovation programmes to ensure the commercial success of nanotechnologies. Nanoscience and the nanotechnologies are progressing very rapidly. However, like other new technologies, nanomaterials at the same time raise concerns about their potential risks, in particular for workers, consumers and the environment. The international community is debating the potential safety aspects of nanomaterials in fora such as the OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials. Since 2005, the European Union has undertaken a proactive approach to nanotechnologies, by funding several research projects and initiating a number of regulatory developments.
This seminar has a dual focus: on the one hand, to explain what nanotechnologies and nanomaterials are and what are their risks and benefits; on the other hand to provide students with the tools that will enable them to understand how to address these risks and benefits and therefore to assess whether what all the actors involved, ranging from researchers to policy-makers and businesses, are doing is right in their opinion.

Director, Institute for Health and Consumer Protection, Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Ispra
Research and Innovation Manager, ANEC - European Association for the Co-ordination of Consumer Representation in Standardisation, Brussels
Head, Business Unit "Nano Systems"', Department Health & Environment, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Vienna Chair

Dr. Elke ANKLAM

Director, Institute for Health and Consumer Protection, Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Ispra

1981-1985 Scientist (Organic Chemistry), University of Hamburg, Germany
1985-1986 Postdoktorand (Synthetic Chemistry), University of Strasbourg, France
1986-1989 Scientific Officer (Radiation Chemistry), Hahn-Meitner Institute Berlin, Germany
1989-1991 Professor (Food Chemistry and Chemistry), Applied University of Fulda, Germany
1991-1998 Scientific Officer (Food Analysis), Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (EC-JRC), Italy
1998-2002 Head of Unit, EC-JRC, Italy
2002-2006 Deputy Director, EC-JRC Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements, Belgium
since 2006 Director of the EC-JRC Institute for Health and Consumer Protection, Italy

BA MA LLM Chiara GIOVANNINI

Research and Innovation Manager, ANEC - European Association for the Co-ordination of Consumer Representation in Standardisation, Brussels

1999-2000 Association of European Radios (AER), Brussels
2000-2002 Responsable Adjointe Permanence, Federation Romande des Consommateurs (FRC), Lausanne
 sinde 2002 Research and Innovation Manager, ANEC - European Association for the Co-ordination of Consumer Representation in Standardisation, Brussels

Dr. Hubert BRÜCKL

Head, Business Unit "Nano Systems"', Department Health & Environment, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Vienna

1992 Experimental Ph.D. in physics at the University of Regensburg
1992-1994 Postdoctoral fellow at the Technical University of Darmstadt
1994-1998 Head of a research group at the IFW in Dresden
1998-2004 Senior scientist at the University of Bielefeld
2004-2005 Associate Professor at the University of Bielefeld
seit 2005 Head of Business Unit "Nano Systems" at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Vienna

Seminarwoche

Timetable einblenden
kategorie: Alle Plenary Seminar
Genre : Alle