Scope
Similarly to the previous summer schools, this event is mainly addressed to PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and young scientists (junior research scientists, assistant professors, lecturers...). They can indeed enlarged their knowledge, meet international expert scientists and share their experience with other young researchers from a foreign country. However, senior scientists that plan to enlarged their scientific skills, intend to collaborate with researchers from other fields or to evaluate the impact of their results in other areas will find, there, valuable information.
Pedagogic goals
› The school's focus is to provide a high education level in the fields of Electrochemistry and Nanotechnologies. It targets also to offer a multidisciplinary teaching for non-specialists in order to depict the main issues and developments of the various subjects.
The teaching will be organized according three topics: Advanced Materials, Energy-Environment, and Health-Biology.
› The basic concepts, technical aspects, and recent applications that have arisen from these three fields of research will be explored in order to show the full range of impact of electrochemistry on nanotechnologies. The event aims at increasing the participants' knowledge and scientific perspectives.
› Likewise previous summer schools, the participants' contributions will be published in a special issue of the Comptes Rendus Chimie (Elsevier).
Strategic goals
In addition to the pedagogic purposes, the summer school should be a mean to federate french and german researchers. Bilateral collaborations should be initiated or strengthen. A seminar on french-german partnerships will be proposed to list and describe all the collaboration programs proposed by various institutions. The summer school can also be the opportunity for PhD students to find post-doctoral fellowships.
Topics
Three different topics will be proposed during the summer school: Advanced Materials, Energy-Environement and Biology-Health. Fundamental concepts as well as recent applications arisen from these major fields of investigations will be developed in order to give a broad overview of the deep impact of electrochemistry in nanosciences and nanotechnologies
Advanced Materials
Fabrication of functional materials that exhibits a high density of interfaces plays a crucial role in modern technologies. From a practical point of view, advanced materials have benefited from the development of nanotechnologies. Inversely nanostructured materials such as nanotubes, nanowires, nanodots have brought new scientific insights in various basic fields. The fabrication and the characterization of these nano-objects are thus essential for the development of both nanoscience and nanotechnology. As shown by the damascene technology invented by IBM or the anodic formation of nanopores in various materials (Al2O3, TiO2, Si...), electrochemistry is not only a key fabrication process but it is also successfully used to functionalize or characterize nanosystems.
Energy – Environment
This research topic is based on charge transport, electrochemical transfer at different interfaces or photoelectrochemical reactions. Synthesis and electrochemical properties of materials with a high interface density, including thin-films, polycrystalline solids, composites, hybrid materials, and nanocrystalline ceramics, are playing a crucial role in modern technologies. Such nanostructured materials give rise to a wide range of applications such as solar cells, fuel cells, batteries or wastewater treatment. Although these scientific insights have a positive impact on the environment, an in introduction to nanotoxicity will also be proposed.
Biology – Health
The use of nanostructured materials in for biological and health technologies is a kind of revolution since it opens a full range of new applications. On the scientific point of view it is very stimulating because it gathers researchers from different fields (physics, chemistry, biology and medicine). Titanium implants are a good example of the association of materials science with dentistry but many other applications are currently revealed (lab-on-chip, biosensing, genetic...). Obviously electrochemistry is involved in a large number of these applications.
Organization
The two previous summer schools have shown it is important to avoid a teaching overload. Informal exchanges have to be promoted. Since the audience is composed by young scientists or researchers coming from various fields, the speakers are recommended to present didactic and opened lectures (conference type presentations will be avoid). Six different teaching activities will thus be proposed during the summer school : lectures, seminars, "flash" presentations, poster session, open discussions and a practical session.
| Lectures | by worldwide known scientists (from academics and industry) on both fundamental concepts and applied aspects of electrochemistry and nanotechnologies (1hr) |
| Seminars | to focus on the issues and the recent progresses in hot topics of electrochemistry and nanotechnologies (30mn) |
| "Flash" presentations | for selected participants. This activity will give the opportunity to young researchers to present their scientific results in front of international specialists (10mn). It must be associated to a poster |
| Poster session | where participants will have time to present their research activity and it will give the chance to young researchers to discuss their results with experts |
| Open discussions | very evening during the whole summer school. Since both participants and teachers are hosted in the same location, spontaneous discussions will easily occur |
| Practical session | will be organized with the help of the industrial partners (Solartron Analytical, Princeton Applied Research) |
