Bangalore: The Department of information technology (IT), biotechnology (BT) and science and technology (S and T), Government of Karnataka, India, revealed that the 5th edition of Bangalore Nano would be held on December 06-07, 2012, at Hotel, The Lalit Ashok, Bangalore.

Bangalore Nano 2012 will feature an exhibition and conference sessions addressed by internationally acclaimed speakers and experts discussing a range of issues pertaining to research, technology development, skills requirement, institutions involved, risks issues, regulatory & governance structure, investment and collaborations between academia, R&D and industry.

Bangalore Nano 2012 will also feature pre-conference tutorials, which is scheduled on December 05, 2012, for the delegates that will offer a quick preview on the 'fundamentals to nanofabrication', a major growth area in nanotechnology for India, followed by parallel tracks focusing on medicines; biotech & material synthesis and materials to devices. The conference sessions of Bangalore Nano 2012 will focus on Advanced Materials, Aerospace & Defence, Business Opportunities in Nanotechnology, electronics & nems, energy & environment & water management / solutions, food & agriculture and healthcare & medicine.

The key speakers invited this year will include Prof Sir Richard Friend, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, UK; Dr Michael L Klein, Temple University, Philadelphia, US; Prof Dr Masakazu Aono, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) Ibaraki, Japan; Prof Sandip Tiwari, Cornell University, New York, US; Prof Martin Hegner, School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland; Prof Shangjr (Felix) Gwo, Department of Physics, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan; and Prof Rao R Tummala, 3D Systems Packaging Research Center, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia, US.

Several eminent individuals are also expected to join from Indian organizations, including Prof Ajay Sood, IISc; Dr G Sundararajan, ARCI; Prof V Ramgopal Rao, IIT-Bombay; Mr Aninda Moitra, president and MD, Applied Materials India; Dr Manu Jaggi, Dabur Research Foundation; Prof Rudra Pratap, CeNSE-IISc; Dr Alok Dhawan, Ahmedabad University; Dr Mano Manoharan, GE Global Research; Dr Kota Murali, IBM India; Prof. T Pradeep, IIT-Madras.

Over 160 leading international and Indian Companies such as Indian Oil, GE Global Research, Sun Group, Dabur Research Foundation, HLL Lifecare, IBM India, Reliance Industries, will be participating in Bangalore Nano 2012.

This year the Bangalore Nano national award will be presented to Prof G U Kulkarni, chemistry and physics of materials unit and DST Unit on Nanoscience, JNCASR, at the inauguration function on December 6, 2012, for his tremendous contribution in the field of Nanotechnology. The selection was done by a special jury under the chairmanship of Prof CNR Rao. The previous recipients of the award have been Prof CNR Rao in 2007, Prof Dipankar Chakravorty in 2008, Prof Ajay K Sood in 2009 and Dr G Sundararajan in 2011.