The Office of the Vice President is pleased to host the Nano@Wayne Seminar series.
On April 12th, Nano@Wayne will feature Dr. Barbara Karn, program director at the National Science Foundation. Dr. Karn manages research grants in the environment, health and safety of nanotechnology.
Dr. Karn's presentation, "Ten years of nanotechnology and the environment, moving toward sustainability," will address the past, present and future directions for moving forward on immediate research issues on environment, health and safety. She also will discuss how nanotechnology can help enable the long-term issues in sustainability such as water, energy, climate and more. She will also touch on how the National Nanotechnology Initiative approaches research and how the National Science Foundation interacts with this large initiative.
Prior to joining NSF, she was an environmental scientist at EPA where she built and managed a research grant program in nanotechnology and the environment - both applications and implications - and brought nanotechnology into EPA’s programs and mission. Through the interagency Nanoscale Science and Technology subcommittee of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, she led workshops to build consideration of the environment and human health in other government agency research programs related to nanotechnology.
Dr. Karn was named one of the Top Ten Experts in nanotechnology environment, health and safety issues by Nanotechnology Law and Business. Recently she was given an ACS award for her 10 years in leading the symposium on Nanotechnology and the Environment. She continues to serve as a senior advisor to the project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Her focus is “Green” nanotechnologies—including using green chemistry, green engineering and environmentally benign manufacturing to make new nanomaterials and products, or using nanotechnology to prevent pollution in current processes. She served as the Nanotechnology Scholar for Georgetown University's Program on Science in the Public Interest and held a visiting scientist position at the University of South Carolina.