Nobel Prize winner to visit Danville

One of the fathers of nanotechnology will serve as the keynote speaker for a nano-education conference in Danville on Tuesday.

Sir Harry Kroto, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996, will address more than 130 educators from the southeastern United States at “NanoTeach 2009.”

The conference will give teachers the tools and resources to teach nanoscience from kindergarten through 12th grade. Kroto will also hold a Science Café for the public on Monday night.

Kroto and four other experts will explain nanoscience as a 21st century chemistry at the Institute for Advanced Learning & Research.

This will serve as a capstone for the Institute’s nano-education initiatives this past year.

“This is a culmination of almost a year of events we’ve done on nanotechnology,” said Laura Holloway, contract program coordinator. “This is our grand finale. We’re not holding back at all.”

The Institute received a $191,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to fund the events, which have already served 100 teachers, Holloway said.

Teachers will receive classrooms materials like “buckyballs” — a form of carbon with a spherical shape that enables the molecule to be filled. Britain-born Kroto with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley of Rice University received the Nobel Prize for their discovery of this molecule known as C60 Buckminsterfullerene.

Educators will also discover existing uses of nanoscience, like in stain-resistant clothing or sun block lotion, Holloway said.

Danville is way ahead of most other locations in its efforts to improve nano-education, Holloway said.

“It’s right here,” she said. “It’s very exciting.”

Kroto is currently a researcher at Florida State University and is the co-founder of the Vega Science Trust.

Other speakers will include: James G. Batterson, a retired NASA engineer and senior advisor to Virginia for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Initiatives; Wade Adams, the director of the Richard Smalley Institute of Nanoscale Science at Rice University; Marlene Bourne, a leading expert on microelectronic mechanical systems and their convergence with nanotechnology; and Lisa Regalla, science editor for DragonFly TV.

Teachers wanting more information about Tuesday’s “NanoTeach 2009: South Regional Conference Inspiring K-12 NanoScience Education” may call Laura Holloway at (434) 766-6772 or e-mail . Seats are still available. Registration costs $15 and includes lunch.