The Joint International Scientific Conference "Functional Materials and Nanotechnologies" and "Nanotechnologies and Innovations in the Baltic Sea Region" (FM&NT - NIBS 2022) took place in the Academic Center of the University of Latvia from July 3 to 6, bringing together almost two hundred European scientists. The conference was dedicated to the latest achievements and innovations in such areas as nanomaterials and nanotechnologies, bioengineering and biotechnology, green energy, and the environment. It was organized jointly by the Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia (ISSP UL) and the Institute of Chemical Physics of the University of Latvia (ICP UL) with financial support from the CAMART2 project.
The conference was opened by the Minister of Economics of Latvia Ilze Indriksone, the Rector of the University of Latvia Indriķis Muižnieks, and Director of the ISSP UL Andris Anspoks. Six plenary speeches, including the one from the head of the world’s largest nuclear fusion project EUROfusion, Tony Doné, and 28 invited speeches were given at the conference by high-quality scientists. The event bought together scientists, students, industry representatives, and experts from the three Baltic States, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, France, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Spain, and Iceland. Scientific reports were given not only by experienced world-renowned researchers and young scientists whose discoveries are currently very relevant but also by innovation leaders. The conference organizers provided special support to Ukrainian researchers’ participation in the event.
Participants of the poster session of the conference competed to win The Best Poster Award and a prize in the amount of 500 euros provided by the North German Initiative Nanotechnology. The winner of the competition – Matas Steponaitis from Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania) for his poster “No doping? No problem. Low-cost carbazole enamines for efficient perovskite solar cells”. The authors of the best posters in particular fields received Honorary Diplomas: The Best Poster Award in the field of Nanotechnology was given to Daniel Aguilar Ferrer from NanoBioMedical Centre, Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland) for his poster “Study of the rhodamine 6G photodegradation efficiency with different polydopamine shell thickness Au/PDA nanoplatforms “; in the field of Functional Materials -Monika Jokubauskaite from the Center for Physical Sciences and Technology (Lithuania) for her poster “Optical spectroscopy of rock-salt Zn(x)Mg(1-x)O thin films with high (up to 85%) Zn content”; for Very Clear Idea of Application – Harleen Kaur from University of Tartu (Estonia) for her poster “Optimization of conditions for testing the efficacy of antimicrobial surfaces”; for a Very Promising Idea, Although Not Completed Yet – Līga Bikše from ISSP UL for her poster “Towards surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy on the tip of optical fiber: comparison of substrates”; for the Most Dangerous Setup – Syed Shabhi Haider from the Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland) for his poster “Designing of an experimental setup for impact-induced mechanoluminescence measurements”; for Great Endurance and Hard Work During the Poster Session – Blessing Adejube from the Institute for Materials Science, Faculty of Engineering, Kiel University (Germany) for his poster “Collective functionality of resistive switching in nanoparticle assemblies”; and, last but not least, People’s Choice Award was given to Nadzeya Khinevich from the Institute of Materials Science, Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania) for her poster “SERS-active substrates based on silver nanoparticle array induced surface lattice resonance”.
At the end of the conference, it was announced that the next FM&NT conference will take place in spring 2024 in Tartu, Estonia.
The organization of the conference was financed thanks to the ERDF project No. 1.1.1.5/18/I/016 "University of Latvia and Institutes in European Research Area - Excellence, Activity, Mobility, Capacity" as well as the EU Horizon 2020 projects - "CAMART2" (European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508) and "CanBioSe Novel 1D photonic metal oxide nanostructures for early-stage cancer detection" (grant agreement No. 778157). The event was supported by Live Riga, Labochema, and Raith.
For more information about the participants and scientific program, visit the conference website.
