Iliyan Karadzhov at the 70th AVS Annual Meeting

Iliyan Karadzhov, ESR1of the Nano-Glass project, recently attended the American Vacuum Society’s (AVS) 70th annual meeting. The scientific event took place in Tampa, Florida, from November 3rd to 8th, 2024.

In the meeting, Karadzhov gave an oral presentation titled “Multifunctional optical surfaces for displays: From antireflective to self-cleaning and antimicrobial functionalities.” His talk focused on the creation of advanced optical surfaces using thermal dewetting of metal films as a lithography-free approach to obtain features on the nanoscale. The optical surfaces can address numerous useful properties at once, for example, antireflection, high transparency at higher angles of incidence, low scattering, mechanical stability and antibacterial properties.

Iliyan was recognised as an AVS Advanced Surface Engineering Rising Star for his presentation and received a certificate of achievement given to young researchers to stimulate their scientific career.

In addition to the time spent at the conference centre, there was time to attend satellite social events. Iliyan competed in the 42nd Annual AVS 5k Run, finishing 51st out of 87 participants.

The American Vacuum Society’s 70th annual meeting brought together top scientists, engineers, and industry experts from all around the world to discuss the most recent advances in vacuum science and technology. The event included a variety of scientific seminars, workshops, and poster presentations on themes such as materials science, nanotechnology, surface science, and thin-film deposition.

In the last edition of the AVS, in 2023, Iliyan presented a poster of his research project.