Clemson University to host World Conference on Carbon in July

CLEMSON, SC – July 11 – 16, 2010 –  Carbon2010: The Annual World Conference on Carbon brings more than 400 scientists and engineers to Clemson’s Madren Conference Center July 11-16. Delegates from 50 countries will attend more than 500 lectures and discussions of the element’s use in nanomaterials, fibers and composites, medicine, energy, microelectronics and dozens of other fields.

We’re honored to have the opportunity to host the world’s scientists and engineers for a conference of this stature, said Clemson President James F. Barker. Carbon research is at the heart of so many disciplines it is a fundamental part of science and technology today. It’s exciting and gratifying for Clemson to be in the center of it.

Carbon is ubiquitous. First put to use in Mesopotamia in the fourth millennium B.C. in the reduction of ores, the element finds new uses today in nanomaterials— tiny slivers of matter one billionth of a meter thick — as well as in more traditional roles.

Even as advances in the nano-forms of carbon — graphenes, nanotubes and fullerenes — continue to reveal exciting new applications, there has been a resurgence in interest in bulk carbon materials driven by increased demand in areas such as energy and transportation, said Mark Thies, a Clemson professor of chemical engineering and conference chairman.

Carbon as an advanced material is already starting to play a key role in the future of high-tech manufacturing in South Carolina. For example, carbon-fiber components by volume make up 50 percent of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which will be built in North Charleston, Thies said. And in the future, we could see carbon fiber wind turbine blades being tested at the Clemson University Restoration Institute.

The technical theme of the conference is ‘From Nano to Macro,’ and it reflects the need for the carbon research community to address issues that extend from the atomic to product scale, said chemical engineering professor Amod Ogale, technical chairman for the conference and director of Clemson’s Center for Advanced Engineering Fibers and Films. We hope this will provide the world research community a forum to get together to harness the versatility of carbon for societal needs and global benefit.

The Annual World Conference on Carbon began in the United States in the 1950s and now moves annually among America, Europe and Asia. From Clemson, the conference travels to Shanghai, China, in 2011.

Conference organizers point to Clemson’s varied and high-level research with carbon as a reason the conference chose its 2010 location. Among the research they mention:

• Apparao Rao, a physics professor, is a leader in developing methods of synthesizing carbon nanotubes, which are tiny cylinders of carbon molecules with electrical properties that make them valuable for next-generation microelectronics.
• Tanju Karanfil, a professor and chairman of Clemson’s environmental engineering and earth sciences department, works with carbonaceous adsorbents to remove pollutants from water and develop new, more efficient water-treatment systems.
• Stephen Creager, a professor and chemistry department chairman, synthesizes carbon nanofoams for use as electrode supports in hydrogen fuel cells, which could power tomorrow’s automobiles.
• Ogale conducts research aimed at developing high-strength carbon fibers and composites for aerospace and automotive applications.
• Thies studies the molecular design of advanced carbon materials, focusing on high thermal-conductivity fibers for such uses as plug-in vehicles.

This is an excellent opportunity for us to showcase Clemson’s research, our faculty and students, and our facilities, Thies said, and I think it speaks to the quality of the work that is done here that the world is coming to our doorstep. It’s an exciting time to be here.