National Nanotechnology Day and Indigenous Peoples Day 2023

October 9, 2023 is both National Nanotechnology Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day! We previously posted about the co-occurrence of these celebrations in our 2017 Celebrating National Nanotechnology Day and Indigenous Peoples Day blog, but it’s been a few years. So, let’s talk about them again!

Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Indigenous Peoples’ Day occurs annually on the second Monday in October. The day is a celebration of America’s Indigenous people and aims to increase the visibility of the contributions Indigenous peoples have had on the world. Further, the day aims to honor and respect the sovereignty of Tribal Nations. If you want to learn more about Indigenous Peoples’ Day, there are several sites with more information and resources including:

A Proclamation on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, 2023 by the White House
National Indigenous People’s Day 2023 by Health Care for the Homeless
Indigenous Peoples’ Day: October 9, 2023 by NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts
What is Indigenous Peoples Day? A day of celebration, protest and reclaiming history by By Hallie Golden and Christine Fernando of NBC Washington

Logos of AISES: Advancing Indigenous People in STEM and SACNAS: Advancing Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science — Logos of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) and the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS).

Also, you can find the work of Indigenous Peoples in nanotechnology associated with organizations such as the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) and the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS).

Nano Day

Every year, the nanoscience community promotes October 9^th as Nano Day to bring awareness to the nanometer (10^-9 meters) scale. This year’s theme is “Enabling the Nanotechnology Revolution”. Under this theme we and several other nanotechnology organizations are celebrating nanoscience achievements over the past 20 years and looking forward to where nanotechnology will take us tomorrow.

You will find that the entirety of our Sustainable Nano blog fits in with this year’s theme. However, you may particularly enjoy reading these posts as a sampler:

The National Nanotechnology Initiative has an enormous list of suggested activities to mark the day including:

Starting Friday, October 6^th, you can participate in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) coordinated discussion highlighting nanotechnology’s impact on our world, recent discoveries about materials at the nanoscale, and what nanotechnologies will enable in the future via https://twitter.com/WHOSTP
Play the National Informal STEM Education (NISE) Network’s Nano around the World card game on the potential uses of nanotechnology.
Sign up for free remote sessions to see nature using nanotechnology tools at http://nano4me.org/remoteaccess.
Run 100 Billion Nanometers (100 meters) and share your pictures and videos on social media with #NationalNanoDay and #100BillionNanometers! You can print a Certificate of Achievement and a Gold Medal for completing the run at https://www.nano.gov/NNDPrintables.