A summary of the AMPT kick off chapter meeting by Luke Somers:

On Tuesday, June 16th, the Advanced Materials Pandemic Task Force Kicked off it’s a virtual meeting for members of it’s chapters in the US and Europe and several of it’s working groups.  

AMPT Director General, Zina Jarrahi Cinker, Ph.D. kicked off the virtual meeting sharing the reason for everyone gathering, “We started noticing there was a lack of coordination, and lack of vision within the materials community when the pandemic started. All the calls were initially about putting graphene in masks. So we wondered if we should all be putting graphene in masks. When we went to doctors and nurses and asked ‘what do you need?’ They said, ‘our goggles are fogging.’ And we realized, we are trying to predict the needs of a community without listening. AMPT is setting out to come together as an international group to share resources and knowledge across the landscape to find out what materials can do to help the situation.”

She also outlined the three pillars which will ultimately inform a roadmap for how advanced materials can help people in this pandemic and for years to come:

1. Library of Knowledge – to show the community what’s being developed to reduce redundancies and increase collaboration and alignment amongst R&D activities

2. AMPT network – to pool resources and expertise, one such example is within public health network to connect companies that are doing testing with live viruses

3. Map of needs – to better identify what are the needs of consumers, industries and to answer questions like, what is the future of returning to work and what is materials community role in this?

The conversation from scientists, business leaders and many in between shed light on some key issues that AMPT is helping to address. For example, Dr. Carlo Saverio Iorio, Senior Researcher at Université libre de Bruxelles shared insights into why he is working on the roadmap working group, “Even if there is a solution like a vaccine, there will still be residual effects left after the waves of this pandemic which will present opportunities for science and business to solve and lessons for policy makers. Since we are all in this together, we need a large framework that can address this at a global scale.”

The theme of creating a framework was a popular idea, especially one that will take an international lens. Dr. Lucia Gemma Delogu, Professor of Biochemistry at University of Padua, Italy Chapter shared that the roadmap, “needed to go beyond papers and create a long-term vision, to show this is the right time for change, especially as It relates to grands and funding in science.”

Dr. Gloria Guidetti, a Development Engineer at Tetra Pak feels that a roadmap will help to identify gaps in the current solutions and to build trust in consumers and organizations in the use of advanced materials through developments like regulations and standards.

From the Applied Public Health and EHS Working Group, Kazi Tasneem and Dr. Baig Al-Muhit of Vanderbilt University shared that the short-term goals is to begin by understanding the needs and barriers of how can we connect the advanced materials community with the public health community. Although this connection is not yet well established, this working group is aiming to drive a better connection through gathering data on important supplies like PPE and anti-fogging devices in the library of knowledge. Beyond this data, the focus is on connecting the what the market is saying with research priorities will help to enable the right technological advancements

Dr.Vincent Bouchiat, CEO at Graphheal shared that his organization is focused on brining sensors to market which can support the various diagnostic and testing challenges. They can be as sensitive as to recognize pathogens on skin in large, populated areas like airports. Other industry leaders like Ray Gibbs,  Commercialization Director at Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre at Manchester University, shared more on the progression and hurdles of advanced materials in this unique market. On their mask with anti-static properties, “It’s not always about being antiviral, and lot’s of products out there that haven’t been tested or proven. Many B2B customers are keen to assure their customers that safety is paramount – putting masks in the hand of customers will help to assure them of safety.”  

To wrap things up, Dr. Laetitia Gazagnes, Founder of Impuls'Innov and member of the AMPT France Chapter shared, “I’m convinced that we need to work together to innovate openly, and we need to bring together high skill levels in different domains.” This was a testament to the cross industry and discipline work that AMPT is doing to accelerate more human centric materials solutions.  

If you have anyone that you think should be highlighted in AMPT’s knowledge hub please email Laura Magagn, Knowledge Hub Manager at laura.magagna@amptnetwork.com to set up an interview or to be one of our guest authors.

‍