Hybrid and nanomaterials - 2009

Abstract

The International Conference held at Tours, France is situated at the heart of a European communication network and nearly 200 km from Paris. The region around Tours is known as the Touraine spread around a radius of 80 km, also called ‘the garden of France’. This territory has many chateaux and famous residences such as: Chenonceau, Azay-Le-Rideau, Chambord, Loches, Chinon and Amboise. This land had been blessed with many great historical figures, like Fran-çois Rabelais (satirist and humorist), Ho-noré de Balzac (Novelist), Pierre de Ronsard (poet), René Descartes (philosopher and mathematician) and world famous genius Leonardo da Vinci (painter, sculptor, archi-tect, engineer and scientist) at Amboise. It became part of the Roman Empire during the first century AD and name of the city evolved in the 4th century as first ‘Civitas Turonorum’ then ‘Tours’.