Bioinspired and Biobased Chemistry & Materials: N.I.C.E. 2020 hybrid

Topics

The three-day event featured 2 plenary, 48 oral-parallel, and 1 poster sessions. They were divided into 3 general topics, 10 chemistry and materials symposia, and 5 optics and photonics symposia, namely:

Hybrid Conference Model: Adapting to COVID-19 Challenges

The 5^th edition of the N.I.C.E. conference series was held in order to continue advancing science amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. A lot of planning allowed the event to continue and to accommodate all the participants from around the world in different timezones. The decision to pursue the hybrid conference model (on-site and on-line) was made after a wide consultation with major partners and endorsers, namely, IUPAC, MRS, and E-MRS, French Optical Society, CNRS, CEEBIOS, Vacuum Society of the Philippines, and Novachim, as well as with the plenary speakers, invited and keynote speakers, and members of the International Scientific Committee and the International Chair Committee. Constant monitoring of government regulations pertaining to COVID-19 events helped the organizing committee make the decision to hold the hydrid event.

The diagram below shows the hybrid conference model that was applied to the event. All talks, both from on-site and online, speakers were live streamed via the Zoom webinar platform with a unique channel for each of the 6 parallel rooms. This arrangement allowed all the participants whether on-site or online to join the session they were interested in. All the speakers were also given options to either pre-record their presentations or to present live on-site and/or via Zoom. The chair of each session played a very important role in coordinating all the speakers and participants from on-site and online where questions were taken from both the platforms.

To ensure the safety of the on-site participants, constant reminders were given to all the participants. The safety protocols that were imposed are as follows: reminder for constant washing of hands, hydro-alcoholic gels provided inside the venue; no shaking of hands or greeting people with kisses on the cheek; respecting social distancing as much as possible; wearing of masks at all times and reminding participants to replace masks every 4 hours as to maintain the integrity of the masks; reminder to proper wearing of masks, nose and mouth must be covered at all times and no lowering of masks when speaking to someone else; constant disinfection of rooms, materials used in the talks; informing the hotel reception or any of the conference volunteers/staff if someone suddenly felt ill during the event; and reminding the participants that if they intend to attend on-site but they suddenly feel ill or exposed to someone with COVID-19, that they shift their participation from on-site to virtual. No confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported after the event.

As for the organization of the hybrid conference model, it was more challenging than the traditional conference set-up. A lot of preparations and coordination with the speakers were made before and during the actual event. The conference cost was also a challenge since online participants were given registration discounts while the on-site expenses were maintained as with a traditional conference.

Plenary

There were two plenary talks during the event, the first during the first day of the conference from 2018 Nobel Laureate in Physics, Gérard Mourou of École polytechnique, France. Mourou talked about passion for extreme light and its applications to the greatest benefit of humankind. He presented the extreme-light laser as a universal source in providing a vast range of high energy radiations and particles along with the highest field, highest pressure, temperature, and accelerations. He presented the different applications of extreme-light laser in the fields of physics, chemistry, and materials science and engineering.

The second plenary talk was delivered virtually by Manijeh Razeghi of Northwestern University, USA. She talked about quantum engineering: building better quantum optoelectronics devices from the atoms up. The talk focused on the atomic engineering of III-V semiconductor optoelectronic materials for a variety of applications important to everyday activities. The applications span many areas, including industrial quality control, public health and safety, and telecommunications.

Invited, Oral, and Poster Contributions

The conference also featured 132 invited talks, 93 oral contributions, and 22 poster presentations. Most of the on-site participants were from European countries as there were no restrictions for travel among European Union nations. The rest of the world from North and South America, Africa, Australia, and Asia joined virtually. The final scientific programme had several changes days before the event due to the time differences of all the participants.

GDR 2088 “BIOMIM”: French Network on Biomimicry and Bioinspiration

GDR 2088 “Biomim”: Biomimicry and Bioinspiration, established by the Institute of Chemistry of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in January 2020 to unite all French actors working in the field of biomimicry and bioinspiration, also held its 1^st Annual Meeting in a hybrid format from 13-14 October 2020, jointly with N.I.C.E. 2020. The two-day event discussed the latest developments and research of 92 research groups with 700 scientists, comprising GDR 2088 members, who are working on topics that seek to resolve scientific, societal, and regional challenges in France that are related to biomimicry and bioinspiration. The meeting featured 8 parallel sessions covering: general topics on bioinspiration and biomimicry; movement, mobility, bioinspiration, bio-robotic; biomaterials and bioinspired medical devices; drugs and bioinspired materials of therapeutic value; feeling, experiencing, perceiving; structures in biomimetic systems and perspective applications; and biosensors and chemical sensors. GDR 2088 is also open for international partnerships; the website can be accessed at https://www.gdr-biomim.com.

Plenary Talk of Prof. Gérard Mourou, 2018 Nobel Laureate in Physics, delivers a Plenary Talk on the Passion of Extreme Light.

Recipients of the student awards: from left to right, E. Strugovshchikov, E. Vedie, D. Hürlimann, T. Girardet.

Closing Ceremony and Student Awards

During the closing ceremony, Prof. Guittard expressed his sincerest gratitude to everyone who made the event successful, especially for those who attended on-site, amidst the increasing number of cases in France, and for the virtual participants who dedicated their time, even in the wee hours of the night, just to participate in the event. He also thanked the different committees that guided and organized the event. He announced that the 6^th edition of the N.I.C.E Conference Series will be held October 2022 in the same venue. After the closing remarks, Prof. Salapare awarded the four student prizes to the following: 2 Best Oral Communications (sponsored by the journal Biomimetics – MDPI) to Evgenii Strugovshchikov of the Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, Estonia, for his work on “Orthogonal chemistry in materials design: Mixed-anion compounds as a case study”, and to Elora Vedie of Université de Toulon, France, for her work on Fabrication and characterization of biomimetic textures for antifouling applications; Best Poster Award (sponsored by the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces) to Thomas Girardet of Université de Lorraine, France, for his work on Elaboration of functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles by microwave assisted coprecipitation; and Best Poster Award (sponsored by ACS Applied Bio Materials) to Dimitri Hürlimann of the University of Basel, Switzerland, for his work on Bioinspired molecular factories as cell mimics.