Spicing up nanotechnology with social network

The heat is on for a networking site for nanoscientists. The Internet Nanoscience Community, TINC, was created by Hungarian chemistry student Andras Paszternak and now has more than 2000 members.

The heat is on for an online social networking community for nanoscientists. The Internet Nanoscience Community, TINC, was created by Hungarian chemistry student Andras Paszternak. It now provides a rich menu of communication tools for the international community of scientists working in the growing field of nanoscience and nanotechnology and recently passed the 2000 members mark.


The virtual nano community is fully equipped with all the functions one expects from a modern online networking site: personal chat, a scientific forum, more than 50 thematic groups, including microscopy, nanomedicine, and even a discussion forum on safety and toxicity. TINC is also a media partner for more than 30 nano conferences on different topics in 2009 and 2010.

"The main idea was to create something more personal than the other nano networks already on the Internet," says Paszternak. "I started off editing the existing nano website at my institution in Hungary but realized the site could be so much bigger, spreading like a tree and connecting nano scientists across the globe," he adds. "Registering the web address www.Nanopaprika.eu for TINC was my little joke adding Hungary's favourite spice to the nano community.

The Internet Nanoscience Community has pulled together a community with more than 2100 members, researchers, students, industrial partners from Europe, India, the USA, and 50 other countries. TINC is open to everyone from post-doctorial researchers and professors to students everywhere. "There is only one important assumption: you have to be interested in nano!" adds Paszternak.

The NanoPaprika site can be found at http://www.nanopaprika.eu

Editors' notes: Andras Paszternak, was born in Slovakia, and has lived in Hungary since 1999. He finished his MSc in chemistry in 2004 at Eötvös University in Budapest, Hungary. Currently, he is working in a research centre as a PhD student in the area of scanning tunnelling and atomic force microscopy, two important tools for investigating materials on the nano scale. Reporters can contact Paszternak by email on editor@nanopaprika.eu for more information about TINC, The Internet Nanoscience Community.

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For more information:
http://www.nanopaprika.eu