ESAN Seminars in Advances in  Materials

Background

ESAN Seminars on Advances in Materials  brings together authorities of material science of African origin. and their colleagues around the world for the purpose of  advancing education and research in material science.

The seminars will become a forum to devise strategies for a sustained development of these fields and to induce collaboration among participants. As a result the seminars  will pave the way for inducting African scientists into the global scientific community. The seminars will create a unique opportunity for faculty members and students in African Universities to benefit from cutting age science education and research and the experiences of educators and researchers in the world.

Topics
Materials Science Intermediate-, and Large-Scale Science Advanced instrumentation for material processing and characterization, Computational Material Science, Material Informatics,  materials research, physics of materials, condensed matter physics,  life matter physics Material Chemistry, bio materials, nano materials

General  Applications Categories
Green Technologies
Energy Production and Storage
Electronics and Photonics
Bioinspired Materials and Systems

Goals

• Discuss advances in fundamental understanding of  materials materials
• Advance  information exchange  among the STEM research communities
• Explore application of Materials  in shaping new technologies
• Explore advanced materials research techniques, materials processing and characterization
• Encourage students to join advanced research  and graduate programs to do their PhDs

General themes of seminars

Computational Science and Engineering

This filed of computational science and engineering shapes technology and provides the opportunity the deeper understanding of natural phenomenon that can be inaccessible to experimental investigation or when experimental investigation is financially prohibitive.  Computational models and simulation with the help of high performance computation can now solve complex problems in physical and mathematical science, Economics and Finance, Climate Change, life sciences and engineering.  There is need to develop research competences in this field to provides students and researchers skills in high performance computing, numerical mathematics, multiscale and multi-physics modeling, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Atmospheric Science, Climate Modeling, Seismology, Reservoir Modeling, Structural analysis, Materials,  Particle Physics, Astrophysics, Quantum Computing, General Relativity, Cosmology, Biophysics, Chemistry, Biology, Medical Imaging, Economics, Finance,  Nonlinear Dynamics, Numerical Analysis, Parallel Computing etc.

Physics of Materials

This talk presents generalized routes to establish a multi-disciplinary research effort to develop fundamental experimental and theoretical research into the physical properties of amorphous, ordered, and nanostructured solids. The materials being investigated include metals, insulators, semiconductors and amorphous solids. The phenomena of interest include phase transitions, localization, electronic, magnetic, and lattice structure of solids. The  seminars discuss: 1) Synthesis, characterization, and analysis of new materials by novel methods and establishing the optimum processing parameters to produce high quality single crystal and bulk materials and 2) Thermal characterization under low or ultra-low temperatures, ultra-high pressures, and high magnetic fields, and non-destructive testing such as photoemission and neutron scattering studies and other surface studies. Since physics of materials research involves a variety of set of skills and experiences, in this talk specific examples of research endeavors and results will be presented.

Specific research results

Computational Materials Discovery of 2D materials for Energy Application (Dr. Tekalign T. Debela(South Korea))

Recently, the crystal structure prediction algorithms combined with DFT calculations are speeding up the discovery of new materials with superior and desirable properties. In this talk, I will introduce the crystal structure prediction technique, and how it can lead to discovering of new materials with ‘forbidden’ chemistry. In addition, our recent works on two-dimensional WS2-Nitrogen-Doped Graphite for High-Performance Lithium Ion Batteries (Experiments and Molecular Dynamics Simulations), Phase polymorphism and electronic structures of TeSe2 will be discussed.

Mechanism of chiral response in all planar nano-optical materials(A. Mekonnen)

Chirality is pervasive in nature. A system is named chiral if it is non-superimposable with its own mirror image.  The interaction of such object with left and right optically handed lights results a spin-selective differential response. This fundamental property of nature was applied in 2D- and/or 3D-chirally designed nanostructures so as to generate chiral field responses.  Here, the absence of chiral response from structurally chiral 2D planar nanostructure is argued and a new method of identification of optical chiral response is suggested. If a system supports polarization conversion and consist at least two phase-lagged dipoles, it suffices to produce optical spin selective response at normal incidence of light. The simplicity and the generality of this finding reveal a whole new significance of the electromagnetic design at a nanoscale with far-reaching potential for the application of nano-spinoptics.

Development of peptide nucleic acid-liposomal nanoparticle conjugates against the  ErbB2/ErbB3 obligate oncogenic partners in breast cancer (Belhu Metaferia (USA))

Innovation: This project aims to develop antigene/antisense peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) against the ErbB2 and ErbB3 oncogenes implicated in breast cancer tumorigenesis. Since there are no yet known therapeutic agents that co-target both the ErbB2 and ErbB3 oncogenes, the proposed antisense approach could lead to a novel and effective alternative to the current therapeutic approach. The application of PNAs as antisense agents is superior to oligonucleotides because PNAs are stable against hydrolytic degradation by nucleases, proteases, and they are amenable to large scale chemical synthesis and various modifications.  Hypothesis: Her2/neu a tyrosine kinase receptor is either amplified or over-expressed in 25-30% breast cancers, and in a variety of other cancers including osteosarcoma. It has been identified as a marker of advanced stage breast cancer and as a prognostic marker. It has been shown that chemotherapy with a monoclonal antibody Herceptin (trastuzumab) improves clinical outcomes including response rate, time to progression, and overall survival for women with Her2/neu positive metastatic breast cancer. However, more than half of the patients are not responsive or develop resistance to trastuzumab treatment. Recent advances in EGFR family of tyrosine kinase receptor studies have identified the tumorigenic activity of the ErbB2 oncogene to be dependent on its dimerization with ErbB3. It has been also demonstrated that down-regulation of the ErbB3 expression leads to overcoming erbB2 mediated drug resistance. Therefore, the oncogenic effect of ErbB2 in breast cancer can be effectively blocked by down-regulating both  ErbB2 and its major signaling partner the ErbB3 gene through antisense/antigene mechanism.  As a result breast cancer proliferation, angiogenesis and  growth will be inhibited. Moreover, by targeting both components of the ErbB2/ErbB3 dimer, we believe to overcome the incidence of  drug resistance encountered in Herceptin treatment against Her2/neu+ breast cancers. In this talk we discuss the results of our experiments and application  of materials in drug delivery.

Effect of shot peening on the formation of surface cracks during lubricated rolling-sliding wear of carburized low Mo alloyed sintered steel (Samuel Tesfaye and Alberto Molinari)

Carburizing increases hardness of the surface layers of steels, with positive effects on wear and fatigue resistance. It also improves the resistance to the nucleation of the contact fatigue cracks due to subsurface hardening. A theoretical model to predict such a resistance was developed and verified. However, the combination of a high microhardness and of porosity may give rise to the formation of surface cracks since the reduced fracture toughness of the matrix may promote a brittle fracture. A theoretical model was developed to predict such a damage mechanism, and lubricated rolling-sliding wear tests were carried out on a gas carburized 1.5%Mo sintered steel, to validate the model. Shot peening promotes surface densification and the accumulation of compressive residual stresses. These effects were introduced in the theoretical model, and the mean pressure at which surface cracks nucleate was predicted to increase. Such an increment was verified experimentally, confirming the positive effect of shot peening on wear of porous sintered steels.
Bio: Samuel Tesfaye received his PhD at University of Trento (Italy) on the research area of contact fatigue of powder metallurgy materials; it cover the investigation of damage mechanisms, tribology, wear, theoretical analysis of solid mechanics, metallurgy and microstructure, dimensional change, and fracture of mechanical components that undergoes rolling-sliding or sliding contacts. He also received his Master of Science and Engineering at University of Trento; for his master’s thesis, he did a research on high sintering temperature, dimensional change, and property anisotropy of low alloyed porous steel in collaboration with GKN Sinter Metals SPA. In addition, He was assistance lecturer at Adama Science and Technology University in mechanical and vehicle engineering department. Currently, He is an assistant professor at Gondar University.