University celebrates 80 years of textile research

In 2009, the Department of Textiles at the University of Ghent, Belgium, celebrates 80 years of textile leadership with an anniversary event, the 6th International Conference on Textile and Polymer Biotechnology and Smart Textiles Salon, an exhibition of smart textile prototypes scheduled for September 23–26, 2009. The University continues its research success as coordinator of the Systex project, an effort to develop e-textiles and wearable microsystems; the European Project NOBUG (New Opportunities for Better User Group Software); a proposed NATO Advanced Study Institute conference on Defense Related Intelligent Textiles and Clothing for Ballistic and Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection; and two new department initiatives: FIBRONIQ, a lab consortium working on nanotextiles and electrospinning technologies; and ERCAT, a research center for artificial turf.