1st Sino-German Symposium on Functional Nano-Materials Sciences Held in Hangzhou

The beautiful and historic city of Hangzhou with its popular West Lake and unique sceneries has recently been the site of a scientific Sino-German Symposium on Functional Nano-Materials Sciences. Participants from China, Germany, and many other countries discussed about the key research results of the invited experts. Both early-career and experienced researchers took the chance to meet colleagues and to build their networks during this Symposium ‘FNMS2018’ in China. 76 participants contributed 42 invited presentations and 22 poster presentations to the Symposium.

The Co-Chairs, Prof. Dr. Huizhen Wu and Dr. Arash Rahimi-Iman, from the Zhejiang University in Hangzhou and the Philipps-Universität Marburg in Germany, respectively, explained: “Our Symposium shall promote the Sino-German connection of experts in the domain of materials sciences, material physics, and technologies employing novel materials, such as optoelectronics, as well as nanophotonics.”

According to the hosts of the Symposium, the investigation of novel and functional materials is of great importance for the optimization and development of electrical and optical devices. Such devices promise not only higher efficiencies, but enable the development of utterly new concepts, which are strongly demanded by modern information processing, quantum optics, medical technologies and sensing applications. Nanomaterials open up new avenues for biophysics, lab-on-the-chip techniques and the field of nanophotonics, to name but a few. The organizers believe that China, Germany, and many other nations will intensively explore such systems and materials.

In this context, the prime focus of this particular Sino-German Symposium was chosen to be on functional nanomaterials, with the content of its 16 scientific sessions covering a wide range of aspects such as the physics of novel materials, as well as materials engineering, characterization and applications. These topics were also well reflected by the student contributions, from which three were awarded best student poster prizes during the Symposium’s banquet.

The two hosts proudly look back on the 1^st Sino-German Symposium in this important research domain and are already looking forward to its continuation, with the next event of this kind planned to be held in Germany.