Society for Nanoscience and Technology

The Society of Nanoscience and Technology was founded in Japan in 1997, and is the publisher of the journal Materials Transactions. The Society was formed from the remnants of the Informal Society on Ultrafine Particles [Page 729]and Clusters. In Japanese, the Society is called “Nano-Gakkai,” a Japanese pronunciation that is similar to the Japanese phrase “What kind of society is it?”

The Society has over 700 members, with more people gathering in its general meetings. The Society has no corporate status, and is a purely voluntary effort, centered on active secretariats.

The Society claims that this is a positive status, feeling that its smaller size gives it greater autonomy. The Society has a group of specialists on nanoscience and Nanotechnology that have their origins in the earlier organization, the Informal Society on Ultrafine Particles and Clusters. One of the guiding principles of the society is that technological progress is essential to maintaining human civilization in a sustainable manner. It also avers that energy problems can be solved by taking resource to nanoscience and nanotechnology. The society accepts that there is an inherent risk in the creation of nanotechnology and that the new science must be exercised with caution.