Oct 4 2012
Wheeling High School, a recognized Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education, announced today that Dr. WeonBae Ko, a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Sahmyook University in Seoul, South Korea, and the leader of the Korean Nanotechnology Researchers Society's Nanotechnology Education Committee, will give a presentation on the state of nanotechnology education in South Korea at its upcoming NANO Connect forum.
NANO Connect is a forum aimed at demystifying the rapidly emerging field of nanotechnology and demonstrating how nanotechnology education can be integrated into traditional high school science curriculums. It is sponsored by NanoProfessor®, the global leader in hands-on undergraduate nanotechnology education, which has been chosen to serve as the foundation for undergraduate hands-on nanotechnology education by over twenty institutions in five countries.
"We are honored to have Dr. Ko speak at our inaugural NANO Connect forum and enlighten us on the state of nanotechnology education in South Korea," said Dr. Lazaro Lopez, Principal of Wheeling High School. "Dr. Ko's presence at NANO Connect speaks to the growing importance of nanotechnology education both locally and internationally."
"I want to thank Dr. Lopez for inviting me to speak at NANO Connect, which will be a great opportunity to exchange ideas about nanoscience education," said Dr. Ko. "South Korea is aiming to become one of the world's top three nations in global nanotechnology competitiveness by 2015. To do this, we are focusing on research and development, research infrastructure, and manpower cultivation, all of which start with education."
The NANO Connect forum will be held at Wheeling High School on Tuesday, October 9 from 8 a.m. to noon and will also feature keynote addresses from Illinois Congressman Bob Dold; Gayle E. Woloschak, Ph.D., Professor at Northwestern University; and Ted Fetters, Director of Program Management for the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition. The NANO Connect forum is open to students, educators, and those working in the nanotechnology field. In addition to the keynote addresses, graduate students from Northwestern University's International Institute for Nanotechnology will give hands-on demonstrations to Wheeling High School students, showcasing nanotechnology and its applications.
The event will also feature a display of the state-of-the-art, nano-focused instrumentation contained within the NanoProfessor Nanoscience Education Program, including NanoInk's NLP 2000 Desktop Nanofabrication System, the first desktop nanofabrication system allowing students to quickly and easily build custom-engineered nanoscale structures with a wide variety of materials from metal nanoparticles to biomolecules using NanoInk's proprietary Dip Pen Nanolithography® (DPN®). Local companies working in the nanotechnology industry will be in attendance, as well.
Nanotechnology is the understanding and control of matter at dimensions between approximately one and 100 nanometers (nm), where unique phenomena enable novel applications which are not feasible when working with bulk materials. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. Encompassing nanoscale science, engineering, and technology, nanotechnology involves imaging, measuring, modeling, and manipulating matter at the nanoscale. A study funded by the National Science Foundation projects that six million nanotechnology workers will be needed worldwide by 2020, with two million of those jobs in the United States. However, as of 2008, there were only 400,000 estimated workers worldwide in the field of nanotechnology, with an estimated 150,000 of those in the United States.
Wheeling High School is a public, four-year comprehensive high school with a STEM focus that opened in 1964 and graduated its first class in 1966. It serves Wheeling and sections of Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Mount Prospect, Northbrook, and Prospect Heights and is one of the six schools in Township High School District 214. In the fall of 2010, Wheeling High School was officially rededicated as a STEM school and admitted as an institutional member of the National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science, and Technology -- one of only three in Illinois.