| A panel of experts, including Vicki Colvin, Paul Anastas and Jim Hutchison, provided an overview of nanotechnology to the public last March, looking specifically at the potential societal benefits and risks.
Participants examined the development and use of nanoparticle-based solar cells as an example of this technology.
“I saw the reality that nanotech and its applications will be ubiquitous. The breadth of it is much bigger than perhaps I had thought,” said Eleanor Hein, a Eugene resident and forum participant.
Colvin is a professor of chemistry and chemical engineering at Rice University; Anastas is a professor of green chemistry at Yale University; and Hutchison is a UO professor of chemistry and director of the UO Materials Science Institute.
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, the University of Oregon, the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI) and ONAMI’s Safer Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing Initiative sponsored the forum. Hutchison directs the ONAMI initiative.
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