Nanomechanical sensors (e.g., cantilever-based sensors, nanowires, graphene membranes, etc.) are an interesting new type of sensors (dimensions: nanometers to micrometers) that can detect biological species and trace elements in liquid and gaseous media. The main competitive advantages offered are label-free sensing and miniaturised size, which opens up for hand-held devices that can perform multiple detections simultaneously. The areas where nanomechanical sensors can see applications range from environmental monitoring (e.g., heavy-metal ion detection), via homeland security, to biomedical applications (e.g., DNA sequencing).

The 8^th edition of the International Workshop on Nanomechanical Sensing will be held in May 2011, in Dublin, Ireland. This workshop is a followup of workshops held in Madrid (2004), Knoxville (2005), Copenhagen (2006), Montréal (2007), Mainz (2008), Jeju (2009), and Banff (2010). The number of participants has seen a steady increase from approximately 30 researchers in 2004 to more than 100 registrations in 2010. For the first time, the possibility to contribute with a full-length manuscript on the presented work in a special issue of Journal of Sensors will be given.

The research efforts within nanomechanical sensing span over theoretical modelling to understand the fundamental physics of the force transduction principles, investigations of novel device materials for optimised sensitivity, smart device engineering for improved readout resolution, and the challenges involved in detecting minimal amounts of analytes. The aim of this workshop is to bring together companies and academia to present their latest results in a lively and personal atmosphere since we believe this is the best method to really progress our joint efforts in the field. We also believe it is time to document our advancement in printed form to make sure it is available for all researchers across the globe. This is our motivation for suggesting a special issue of Journal of Sensors on this topic. The scope of this special issue on nanomechanical sensing encompasses, but is not restricted to the following areas:

• Cantilever-based sensors
• Cantilever systems engineering
• Nanowires-based nanomechanical devices
• Graphene-based nanomechanical devices
• MEMS/NEMS devices
• Thin Film Bulk Acoustic Resonators (TFBAR)
• Environmental sensing
• Gas sensing
• QCM devices
• Surface acoustic wave transducers
• Liquid sensing
• Biological sensing

Articles published in this special issue will be granted 25% reduction on the applied Article Processing Charges.

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/js/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: