Science Colloquium

Members and staff in Science and Technology often present their work at conferences and universities around the world. We also welcome speakers from all over the world to present their work at Almaden's weekly Science Colloquium.

If you are a non-IBM employee and would like to attend the Science Colloquium, then...

Please contact Leann Sutton(leannsut@us.ibm.com) by Thursday afternoon to let us know to expect you on Friday morning. Please indicate your professional affiliation and country of citizenship so that we can enter a "Visitor Access Request" prior to your arrival. Also, if you would like to stay past the end of the seminar (~11:45am) to talk with the speaker, please let us know.
Please plan to arrive at the Almaden lobby by 10:15am on Friday morning, and someone will meet you in the lobby to escort you to the entrance of the Auditorium. Our Science Colloquium seminars typically begin at 10:30am. You can find directions to our site at http://www.almaden.ibm.com/almaden/visitorinfo.html.

Fall 2011 Schedule

Friday Mornings at 10:30 am, Auditorium A

Jan 6	OPEN
Jan 20	Delia Milliron, Molecular Foundry, LBNL "Manipulating electronic properties by nanoscaling: Inorganic nanocomposites and dynamic plasmonics"
Jan 27	Dr. Liliane Ventura, Professor of Optical Physics & Engineering, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil "UV Radiation: Villain and Hero for Our Eyes"
Feb 3	Drew Endy, Stanford University "Synthetic Biology -- Let's make biology easy to engineer"
Feb 10	OPEN
Feb 17	OPEN
Feb 24	OPEN
Mar 2	OPEN
Mar 9	OPEN
Mar 16	Gustavo Stolovitzky, IBM Research - Watson "TBA"

Abstracts

Jan 6

OPEN

Jan 20

Delia Milliron, Molecular Foundry, LBNL
"Manipulating electronic properties by nanoscaling: Inorganic nanocomposites and dynamic plasmonics"

Although semiconductor nanocrystals have long been renowned for their brilliant size-dependent photoluminescence, the development of functional nanocrystal-based electronic materials has been more elusive. First, I will describe our integration of colloidal nanocrystals with inorganic clusters in a modular approach to fabricating inorganic nanocomposites. The size-dependent mixed ionic and electronic conductivity of Ag2S-GeS2 nanocomposites prepared by this method demonstrates the potential for systematic tuning of complex transport properties through manipulation of the nanostructure. Second, I will introduce doped metal oxide semiconductor nanocrystals as a new class of plasmonic materials. Dopants are controllably introduced during nanocrystal synthesis by tuning the chemical reactivity of the precursors, giving rise to delocalized free electrons. By incorporating these nanocrystals into electrochromic devices, we can dynamically and reversibly tune their surface plasmon resonance across the near infrared spectrum. These coatings could revolutionize "smart" windows by simultaneously optimizing daylight and solar gain from windows and skylights.

Host: Bob Shelby

Jan 27

Dr. Liliane Ventura, Professor of Optical Physics & Engineering, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
"UV Radiation: Villain and Hero for Our Eyes"

The interaction of ultraviolet radiation with the ocular system has long been a topic of discussion among scientists, physicians and the public. UV's relationship with the eye can be considered both beneficial and hazardous. Benefits include surgical and clinical procedures to correct vision and to prevent ocular disease progression. Hazards include damage from artificial sources and from the sun for which the use of UV protected sunglasses is well broadcasted. The choice of limits on ocular UV exposure is still under debate. For example, there is no consensus among nations for standards of sunglass UV-blocking performance such as frequency and dose (exposure time). In ophthalmic procedures that use UV such as refractive surgery and corneal collagen crosslinking, scientists and physicians are still investigating safe limits. An overview of these optical and ophthalmic scenarios will be presented in this talk, together with recent results from our ophthalmic instrumentation research laboratory in Brazil.
Professor Ventura received a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Physics, Solid State Physics, and Ophthalmic Physics from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. As a member of the electrical engineering faculty at the University of Sao Paulo campus in Sao Carlos, she runs both a research group and an instrumentation development laboratory centered on understanding and measuring optical properties of the eye. Her research activity in this field has led to commercialization of diagnostic equipment that has found widespread use in Brazil, in large part due to its streamlined, low-cost design from her lab. Professor Ventura has served as a consultant on numerous national standards boards including the Brazilian National Institute of Metrology and the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards.

Host: Jane Frommer

Feb 3

Drew Endy, Stanford University
"Synthetic Biology -- Let's make biology easy to engineer"

Our capacity to partner with biology to make useful things is limited by the tools that we can use to specify, design, prototype, test, and analyze natural or engineered biological systems. However, in practice, biology has typically been engaged as a "technology of last resort" in attempts to solve problems that other more mature technologies cannot. As a result we can now only celebrate a few idiosyncratic biotechnology successes. We have not yet developed the scientific foundations and engineering processes needed to sustain geometric increases in our capacity to engineer biology. I'll review recent progress on making biology easier to engineer and introduce ongoing strategic discussions focused on how such work might be coordinated globally so as to benefit all people and the planet. Specific examples will include the development of a reliable S/R latch that operates in living cells and the beginnings of a genome-scale cellular operating system.

Host: Greg Wallraff

Feb 10

OPEN