Minister opens METALEX NANO Forum at METALEX 2012 – National Nanotechnology Center (NANOTEC)

“As the Minister of Science and Technology, it is my responsibility to ensure that the government pays close attention to promote the development of science and technology for the benefit of our people, in both the industrials and agricultural sectors” said H.E. Mr. Woravat Auapinyakul, Minister of Science and Technology during his keynote speech at the 2^nd METALEX NANO Forum in Bangkok. “S&T must benefit the well-being of our grass-root society. The Government has realized the importance of science, technology and innovation in bringing the wealth of our country and the equality of the people”.

Minister Woravat went on to inform that the Thai Government has recently approved the first National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Framework as well as the National Nanotechnology Policy Framework, which will guide the Science and Technology and Innovation development for Thailand in the next 10 years. This will promote the application of existing and emerging technologies in a safe, sensible and sustainable way.

The Thai Government has recently provided the mandate to the Ministry of Science and Technology to be responsible for the target of S&T expenditure of 1% of the GDP in the next few years. This is equivalent to 120 billion Baht (USD 4 billion). It is expected that nanotechnology will contribute up to 10 percent of those budget. The National Nanotechnology Center (NANOTEC) has been mandated to produce a budget plan that will illustrate the social and economic benefit of such an investment.

Also speaking at this forum was Dr. Mihail Roco, Senior Advisor for Nanotechnology of the National Science Foundation and the key architect of the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative who gave a plenary talk on ‘Trends and Applications of Nano Manufacturing”. Dr. Roco informed that there are three challenges facing nanomanufacturing: specific nanoscale design, realizing nano-specific efficiency, and sustainable development.

Dr. Roco went to say that there are five generations of products that will make the market by 2030 some have already made it into the marketplace in the form of “First Generation” products (passive nanostructures with steady behavior; since 2000) and more recently “Second Generation” (active nanostructures, such as advanced transistors, amplifiers, targeted drugs and chemicals, sensors, actuators, and adaptive structures; since 2005), while embryonic “Third Generation” (nanosystems, such as bio-assembling; networking at the nanoscale, nanoscale robotics and multiscale architectures; since 2010) products are in the pipeline. Concepts for the “Fourth Generation” products (molecular nanosystems), and “Converging Technologies” platforms, are only in research. Dr. Roco said that convergence with modern biology, digital revolution, cognitive sciences and other areas is expected to accelerate development of nanotechnology manufacturing.

Dr. Roco also used this opportunity to inform about the role of NNI’s Nanotechnology Signature Initiative on Sustainable Nanomanufacturing focusing on nanoscale processing and metrology methods for carbon and cellulose nanomaterials-based technologies.

METALEX NANO Forum is a two day forum on applications of nanotechnology by industrial sector. It is co-hosted by NANOTEC and the organizers of the annual MELALEX which is ASEAN’s largest machinery and metalworking expo.