Participants at the 2020 Nanotechnology conference, organised by the Ladoke Akintola University Technology (LAUTECH) Nanotechnology Research Group (NANO+), a multidisciplinary group of scholars at the institution, have described Nanotechnology as a veritable tool for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) of the United Nation, which must be embraced by all.
They also said it was high time efforts by researchers in nanotechnology to embrace innovative ideas, product development and commercialisation at ensuring that the citizenry and the society benefited from their investigations.
With the success of the three previously organised workshops and conferences held in 2017, 2018 and 2019, the group was not deterred by constraints imposed by the incidence of COVID-19, reason its 4th workshop/conference on nanotechnology was via webinar.
The conference with the theme: ‘Human Existence and Resource Utilisation: Extending the Frontiers through Nanotechnology’ was attended by about 200 participants, including scholars, policy makers, and students from more than 50 institutions and government agencies across Africa, Asia and Europe.
Participants joined the two-day event from Nigeria, South Africa, Sierra Leone, India, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, China, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
In his opening remark, the head of the research group, Prof. A. Lateef highlighted the group’s major contributions to nanotechnology research in Nigeria; publication of 1,000 research articles in the last six years, organising of workshop/conference on nanotechnology since 2017, and manpower development involving students and established researchers.
The Minister of Science and Technology was represented by Mr. Mfon E.J. Bassey, Director, Chemical Technology, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Abuja and declared open by the Vice-chancellor, Prof. Michael O. Ologunde, who acknowledged the contributions of LAUTECH Nanotechnology Research Group to the positive webometric ranking of the University, and increased knowledge-base in nanotechnology.
In their separate papers presented at the plenary, Dr. Mikael Syväjärvi of University of Linköping, Sweden, and Prof. A.S. AbdulKareem of Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria underscored the importance of innovation and product development in nanotechnology research.
In his presentation, Dr. Syväjärvi shared his experience of product development and innovative ideas via collaboration, using the European Commission as a case study, where about 1 billion Euros have been committed to Graphene research and innovation alone, with unparallel applications in all facets of human development.
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