The Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) Planetarium Science Center hosted Dr. Mona Bakr Mohamed, National Institute of Laser Enhanced Science (NILES), Cairo University, who gave a lecture on Nanotechnology called "New Designs for Future Applications" on 29 October 2009. The lecture took place at the Great Hall, BA Conference Center.


Dr. Mona Bakr gained her BSc 1991 and her MSc in Chemistry from Assiut University in 1994. She received her PhD in 2002 from Georgia Tech, Atlanta, USA under the supervision of Prof. Mostafa El-Sayed, the Research scientist in EPFL Switzerland. Dr. Mona Bakr is currently assistant professor at the National Institute of Laser Enhanced Science, Cairo University.


Her research interest is focused on synthesis and characterization of metallic, magnetic and semiconductor nanocrystals of different shape and size, as well as their optical properties and ultrafast dynamics using different laser techniques. Her research group (22 graduate students) is working on constructing novel nanomaterials for solar cell applications, photoelectronic devices, biomedical imaging, cancer therapy, nanocatalysis, and water treatment.


Nanostructural materials of unique physical and electronic properties are the building blocks of electronic and optical devices and other functional materials, which have great potential for developing new nanotechnology including applications as drug carriers, biolables, photovoltics, light emitting diodes and lasers. New synthetic methods have been developed to achieve complete control over the shape of the nanocrystals and to prepare more complex-shaped nanostructures such as a few dots linked together forming nanochains, rods linked together to form tetrapods, coating the nanocrystals with another layer a different material, or even doping the nanocrystal with another different atom. Such control over linking, branching, coating or doping throughout the growth of the nanocrystals allows more potential applications ranging from information processing to artificial photosynthesis. In addition, the possibility of using these nanostructural materials to be used in high performance solar cells and optoelectronic devices will be exposed. Factors affecting the shape of the nanocrystals will be discussed, and new optical properties associated with these new shapes will be revealed.


It is also worth mentioning that the Planetarium Science Center has initiated a series of lectures on the topic of Nanotechnology, starting with a lecture by Dr. Mostafa Elsayed, under the title "Nanotechnology, a Look into the Future" and hosted by the BA on 29 March 2009.

Click here to learn more about this lecture.