Prof. Dr. David Leigh
Department of Chemistry, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
www.catenane.net

Making the Tiniest Machines

Perhaps the best way to appreciate the potential of controlled molecular motion is to recognise that nanomachines lie at the heart of every biological process. When we learn how to build molecules that can interface the effects of motion with other molecules, it will impact on every aspect of functional molecule and materials design.
“We are at the dawn of a new industrial revolution of the twenty-first century, and the future will show how molecular machinery can become an integral part of our lives. The advances made have also led to the first steps towards creating truly programmable machines, and it can be envisaged that molecular robotics will be one of the next major scientific areas.” Chemistry Nobel Prize Committee, Oct 2016.

Short biography

Prof. Dr. David Leigh is a Royal Society Research Professor and the Sir Samuel Hall Chair of Chemistry at the University of Manchester. Prof. Leigh obtained his PhD in supramolecular chemistry at the University of Sheffield. He is one of the pioneers of synthetic molecular machinery and the recipient of many national and international prizes and awards, including 3 successive ERC Advanced Grants. In 2009, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (London). He is a Guinness World Record holder (for making the world’s tightest knot – only 2.5 nm per crossing) and has been known to demonstrate that ‘sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’!

Prof. Dr. Andreas Heinrich
Center for Quantum Nanoscience, Institute for Basic Science hosted at Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
https://qns.science/our-team/andreas-heinrich/

Spins on Surfaces: The Scanning Probe Approach

The scanning tunneling microscope is an amazing tool because of its atomic-scale spatial resolution. This can be combined with the use of low temperatures, culminating in precise atom manipulation and spectroscopy with microvolt energy resolution. In this talk we will apply these techniques to the investigation of the quantum spin properties of magnetic atoms sitting on thin insulating films (Science 2014, PRL 2015). Our focus will be on the combination of STM with single-atom electron spin resonance (STM-ESR) which improves the energy resolution for spin measurements more than one-thousand fold (Science 2015). This enables precision measurements such as long-range dipolar interactions between spins as well as electron-nuclear spin interactions (Nature Nano 2017, Science 2018). Combined with atom manipulation this opens a high-precision toolbox for spins on surfaces (Science 2019).

Short biography

Prof. Dr. Andreas Heinrich is a world-leading researcher in the field of quantum measurements on the atomic-scale in solids. He pioneered spin excitation and single-atom spin resonance spectroscopy with scanning tunneling microscopes – methods that have provided high-resolution access to the quantum states of atoms and nanostructures on surfaces. Heinrich spent 18 years in IBM Research, which uniquely positioned him to bridge the needs of industrial research and the academic world. Heinrich became a distinguished professor of Ewha Womans University in August 2016 and started the Center for Quantum Nanoscience (QNS) of the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in January 2017.

Dr. Jos Benschop
ASML, Veldhoven, Netherlands University of Twente, Netherlands

Optical Lithography, the key enabler for Moore’s Law.

For more than 50 years the electronics industry has enabled a revolution in our daily life due to ever decreased feature sizes on our chips enabling faster, cheaper and more energy efficient computing and data storage. This trend is commonly referred to as Moore’s Law.
To this day optical lithography has been the key enabler for Moore’s Law. As pointed out by Gordon Moore in his 1995 SPIE presentation, the “contribution from increased density from finer line widths has been constant over the last 25 years”, a trend which continues to this day.
For decades this has been made possible through a combination of wavelength reduction, increased numerical aperture (NA) and pushing imaging closer to the physical limit.
The latest transition of wavelength has been the largest step in wavelength ever: from 193 nm ArF to 13.5nm EUV light. A transition which took decades of research and development leading to the first commercial phones, with ICs patterned using EUV, on the market in 2019.
In the presentation it will be summarized how a ASML grow from small spin-off to a multinational leading in technology and market share. Solutions to technical challenges that had to be overcome for EUV lithography will be shared, e.g. the atomic flat aspheric optics and the high power EUV source. State-of-art performance as well as next steps in the optical lithography roadmap will be shared.

Short biography

Dr. Jos Benschop received his MSc (cum laude) and PhD from physics faculty in Twente University. From 1984 until 1997 he worked at Philips on optical metrology and optical recording. He joined ASML in 1997.
As Senior Vice President Technology he is responsible for research and system engineering within ASML.
He has published 30+ papers and generated 20+ patents. He is an SPIE fellow and part-time professor “NNV leerstoel Industriële Natuurkunde” at the University of Twente.
He is a member of the Netherlands Academy of Technology and Innovation (https://www.acti-nl.org/nl) . He has been appointed by the Dutch king as advisor to the Dutch government on science, technology and innovation (https://www.awti.nl/).

Prof. Dr. ir. Lieven Vandersypen
QuTech and Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands
qutech.nl/person/lievenvandersypen/

Quantum Computation — Spins Inside

Quantum computation has captivated the minds of many for almost two decades. For much of that time, it was seen mostly as an extremely interesting scientific problem. In the last few years, we have entered a new phase as the belief has grown that a large-scale quantum computer can actually be built. Quantum bits encoded in the spin state of individual electrons in silicon quantum dot arrays, have emerged as a highly promising platform for ultimate scalability. In this talk, I will present our vision of a large-scale spin-based quantum processor, and ongoing work to realize this vision

Short biography

Prof. Dr. Ir Lieven Vandersypen is an Antoni van Leeuwenhoek professor in Quantum Nanoscience at the Delft University of Technology and Scientific Director of QuTech, the advanced research centre for Quantum Computing and Quantum Internet in the Netherlands. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University for the first experiments in quantum computing. He is a pioneer in single-spin qubits in semiconductor quantum dots, for applications in quantum computing and quantum simulation. Among many other awards he won the IUPAP Young Scientist Prize for Semiconductor Physics and the Nicholas Kurti European Science Prize.

Prof. Dr. Vivian W.W. Yam
Institute of Molecular Functional Materials and Department of Chemistry, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, PR China
www.scifac.hku.hk/people/yam-vivian-wing-wah
web.hku.hk/~wwyam/yam/homepage/

From Simple Discrete Metal-Ligand Motifs to Supramolecular Assembly, Nanostructures and Functions

Various strategies for the design and synthesis of new classes of chromophoric and luminescent metal complexes will be described. These simple discrete metal complexes can undergo supramolecular assembly to give a variety of nanostructures and morphologies with different colors and emission properties. Explorations into the underlying factors that govern their structures, properties and morphologies and their assembly mechanisms have provided new insights into the interplay of the various intermolecular forces for the directed assembly of metal-containing soft materials and hybrids. The exploration into the potential applications and functions of these discrete metal complexes, supramolecular assemblies and polymers will also be described.

Short biography

Prof. Dr. Vivian W.W. Yam is the Chair Professor of Chemistry and Philip Wong Wilson Wong Professor in Chemistry and Energy at The University of Hong Kong. She received both her BSc(Hons) and PhD from The University of Hong Kong. She was elected to Member of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Foreign Associate of US National Academy of Sciences, Foreign Member of Academia Europaea, Fellow of TWAS and Founding Member of Hong Kong Academy of Sciences. She was Laureate of the 2011 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award. Her research interests include inorganic/organometallic chemistry, supramolecular chemistry, photophysics and photochemistry, and metal-based molecular functional materials for sensing, organic optoelectronics and energy research.

Prof. Dr. Wanda Kukulski
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England
https://www.ibmm.unibe.ch/research/group_kukulski/index_eng.html

How does the architecture of cellular membranes support membrane functions?

The diverse functions of cellular membranes are tightly coupled to their architecture. Such functions include intracellular transport, energy conversion, and signaling pathways. Despite their importance, we know little about how membrane shape, protein composition and supramolecular organization interplay to facilitate the membrane’s specific tasks. Our group’s goal is to understand mechanisms by which membrane architecture contributes to cellular functions. Our main tools are correlative microscopy approaches that allow us to link the localisation of fluorescent signals with the high resolution of cellular electron tomography.

Short biography

Prof. Dr. Wanda Kukulski is a professor of biochemistry at the University of Bern. Wanda studied biology in Basel and received her PhD in biophysics at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel. She did postdoctoral research at EMBL in Heidelberg before joining the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge as a group leader. Since 2020, she is a group leader at the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Bern. Her group’s research group focuses on the roles of membrane architecture in cellular functions.

Prof. Dr. Nynke H. Dekker
Faculty of Applied Sciences, TU Delft
https://nynkedekkerlab.tudelft.nl

Adventures in DNA replication using single-molecule biophysics

Many transactions on DNA are carried out by molecular machines that operate at the nanometer-scale. How they do so effectively is a question of long-standing interest. We are particularly interested in studying the dynamics of these molecular machines using single-molecule techniques. I will briefly highlight how the field of single-molecule biophysics has advanced such techniques over the past years, allowing the dynamics of diverse motor proteins to be accurately followed.

I will next describe how single-molecule techniques are being used to tackle new challenges, including the probing of complex molecular machines built up from many different components. The replisome that copies DNA is such a complex machine. While the overall outline of replisome assembly is understood, little is known about the dynamics of the individual proteins on the DNA and how these contribute to the formation of proper replisomes. I will show that using integrated optical trapping and confocal microscopy, one can dissect how protein binding, diffusion, sequence recognition, and protein-protein interactions play important roles in the first steps of replisome assembly, and discuss the implications thereof.

Short biography

Prof. Dr. Nynke H.Dekker is the chair of single molecule nanoscale biophysics in the Faculty of Applied Science TU Delft. She received her PhD in physics from Harvard University. This was followed by a Postdoc at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. Her research focuses on fundamental biological topics such as transcription, replication and topology that have also a strong link to biomedical research. She was a major player in developing new techniques for single molecule probing like e.g. the magnetic tweezers. Prof. Dekker’s current research efforts focus on studying the dynamics of the complete eukaryotic replication fork at the single-molecule level. Among many other honors, Prof. Dekker was elected as a member of the prestigious organization European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in 2019.

Prof. Dr. Nicole H. Steinmetz
University of California, San Diego and Director of the Center for Nano-ImmunoEngineering
https://www.steinmetzlab.com

NanoEngineering gone #viral

Nanoscale engineering is revolutionizing the way we detect, prevent and treat diseases. Viruses are playing a special role in these developments because they can function as prefabricated nanoparticles. We utilize and build-upon the high-precision assemblies of the viral capsids and utilize them as platform technologies, engineered and repurposed for a desired function. More specifically, we turned toward plant viruses as a platform nanotechnology targeting human, veterinary and plant health applications. Through chemical biology, we have developed virus-based therapeutics and vaccines and I will highlight applications in cancer immunotherapy and COVID-19.

Short biography

Prof. Dr. Steinmetz is a Professor of NanoEngineering at the University of California, San Diego and the Founding Director of the Center for Nano-ImmunoEngineering. She received her PhD in Bionanotechnology from the University of East Anglia, where she wrote her dissertation at the John Innes Centre, Norwich. In 2018 she became full professor at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. Thereafter she joined the University of California, San Diego. Her research interests include plant virus-based nanoparticles, vaccines and immunotherapy, drug delivery targeting human health, precision farming and agricultural nanotechnology. Among many honors she received Daniela Pucci Prize at NanoPlasm 2016 and was recognized by National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) during Women’s History Month.

Prof. Dr. Harald Weinfurter
Faculty of Physics, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Munich, Germany
https://xqp.physik.uni-muenchen.de

Towards a Quantum Network

The novel possibilities of Quantum Science and Technologies, from secure communication, metrology and computation, will benefit from the availability of a network of quantum nodes. While nano systems might prove preferential on the long run, the longstanding developments in the field of atom-optics enable first steps towards distributing entanglement over long distances, and give a hint what developments are still ahead of us.

Short biography

Prof. Dr. Harald Weinfurter is an experimental quantum physicist at the LMU Munich. He completed his PhD in technical physics at the Vienna University of Technology in 1987 and continued research at the Hahn-Meier Institute in Berlin and the University of Innsbruck. In 1999, he became a professor at the LMU Munich. His field of work focuses on quantum mechanics, quantum optics and quantum cryptography. Among other honors, he was awarded with the Erwin Schrödinger Prize for the development of a quantum cryptographic system which enabled messages to be transmitted securely between an aircraft and a ground station for the first time.

Dr. Frank Schuurmans
ASML, Veldhoven, Netherlands University of Twente, Netherlands

Optical Lithography, the key enabler for Moore’s Law.

For more than 50 years the electronics industry has enabled a revolution in our daily life due to ever decreased feature sizes on our chips enabling faster, cheaper and more energy efficient computing and data storage. This trend is commonly referred to as Moore’s Law.
To this day optical lithography has been the key enabler for Moore’s Law. As pointed out by Gordon Moore in his 1995 SPIE presentation, the “contribution from increased density from finer line widths has been constant over the last 25 years”, a trend which continues to this day.
For decades this has been made possible through a combination of wavelength reduction, increased numerical aperture (NA) and pushing imaging closer to the physical limit.
The latest transition of wavelength has been the largest step in wavelength ever: from 193 nm ArF to 13.5nm EUV light. A transition which took decades of research and development leading to the first commercial phones, with ICs patterned using EUV, on the market in 2019.
In the presentation it will be summarized how a ASML grow from small spin-off to a multinational leading in technology and market share. Solutions to technical challenges that had to be overcome for EUV lithography will be shared, e.g. the atomic flat aspheric optics and the high power EUV source. State-of-art performance as well as next steps in the optical lithography roadmap will be shared.

Short biography

Dr. Frank Schuurmans received his MSc (cum laude) from Utrecht University and his PhD from the University of Amsterdam, both in Physics. From 2000 until 2007, he worked at Philips Research, on a variety of optics-related topics, ranging from EUV lithography to holographic optical recording. From 2007 until 2011, he worked at FEI – an electron microscope vendor – responsible for the development program of their high-end microscopes. He joined ASML in 2011, where he has held various management positions in product development and currently holds the position of Vice President Research. He has published 10+ papers and generated 40+ patents.

Empa

As an interdisciplinary research institute of the ETH Domain, Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, conducts cutting-edge materials and technology research. Our research and development activities focus on meeting the requirements of industry and the needs of society, and thus link applications-oriented research to the practical implementation of new ideas in the areas of nanostructured, “smart” materials and surfaces, environmental, energy and sustainable building technologies as well as biotechnology and medical technology.

Office of Economy and Labour,
Economic Affairs,
Economic Development

The Canton of Basel-Stadt contributes to the further development of convention-related tourism. Conventions are specifically acquired, developed and held, thus accessing a potential not yet exploited with benefits beyond tourism. The objective of convention promotion is to increase the direct and indirect added value generated by conventions. Additionally, a further strengthening of Basel as the most innovative economic location and centre of knowledge in Switzerland is targeted. By promoting conventions, we want to contribute to Basel remaining one of the most important trade fair and convention cities in Europe.

CSEM SA

CSEM—technologies that make the difference
CSEM, founded in 1984, is a Swiss research and development center (public-private partnership) specializing in microtechnology, nanotechnology, microelectronics, system engineering, photovoltaics and communications technologies. Around 500 highly qualified specialists from various scientific and technical disciplines work for CSEM in Neuchâtel, Zurich, Muttenz, Alpnach, and Landquart.

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