Aug. 26, 2013
Canadian and international leaders in the field of plasmonics met at University of Toronto this week for Plasmonics Summer School, a five-day workshop designed to inspire interdisciplinary collaboration and discussion.
Academic and industrial researchers joined with graduate students from a broad range of disciplines to tackle topics in plasmonics theory, plasmonic waveguiding structures, plasmonic resonance and field effects, nanoplasmonic devices and applications, bioplasmonics and metamaterials.
Plasmonics is a branch of nanophonics concerned with studying interactions between electromagnetic fields and free electrons in a metal.
The workshop was kicked off by Jan Niklas Caspers, Arash Joushaghani and Muhammad Alam of the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Professor Mostafa El-Sayed of the Georgia Institute of Technology delivered the morning’s introductory keynote on the topic of nanophotonics and selective photothermal therapy for cancer treatment. “Chemistry stops when life stops,” said El-Sayed during his 90-minute lecture.
After a vigorous question and answer session, delegates regrouped at the MacLennan Physical Laboratories building for a networking lunch sponsored by OSA. The workshop received support from NSERC-CREATE, CMC Microsystems, BiopSys, OSA and the IEEE.
Sessions throughout the week feature prominent researchers from Purdue University, SUNY at Buffalo, IBM’s Watson Research Laboratory, UC Santa Barbara, University of Ottawa, University of Alberta and University of Toronto, including ECE professors Stewart Aitchison, Mo Mojahedi and Amr Helmy.
The workshop continues through Friday, Aug. 30. For more information, visit the Plasmonics website.
Media contact:
Marit Mitchell
Senior Communications Officer
The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of
Electrical & Computer Engineering
416-978-7997; marit.mitchell@utoronto.ca
