Nanotech research lab planned in city

A specialised institute for nanotechnology research will be set by the central government in the city, the Chairman of the Karnataka Vision Group on Nanotechnology C N R Rao said on Friday.

“We have already got the land for the new institute, for which the Union Science and Technology Department has given its approval,” Rao, who is also Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, said. A similar research institute will be operational in Chandigarh from next month, he said, briefing the media ahead of the two-day ‘Bangalore Nano 2011’ conference being held here from December 8.

Though there are a number of colleges that offer degree courses in nanotechnology and biotechnology, they are “not equipped” to teach, Rao said. The fourth edition of Bangalore Nano, with the focal theme, “Nanoscience and Technology at the Cutting Edge”, will see participation by about 500 delegates, he said.

Sixty internationally acclaimed speakers — such as E W Meijer of the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, Timothy Fisher of the USA, Anthony K Cheetham of the University of Cambridge in the UK, IBM Almaden Research Centre Director Stuart S P Parkin, Robert Stokes of Nanoink Inc USA and others — will deliver lectures on nano science at the event, he said.