9527439 Small Partial support is provided to sponsor the '96 Hole-Burning and Related Spectroscopies" (HBRS) meeting to be held in Brainerd, MN during September 13-17, 1996. This conference will be the fifth in a series which began in 1987 but the first request to NSF for funding. It is the major international gathering for researchers who use hole burning and related frequency and coherent time domain spectroscopies to understand the relationships between disorder, electronic/vibrational structure and various dynamical processes in complex solids and those who use the basic science to develop advanced application concepts. The conference will address several important issues. They include a firmer understanding of the physics associated with practical high temperature hole burning and better approaches to the design and fabrication of the "ideal" hole burning medium, a microscopic description of the two-level systems which dictate the properties of glasses at low temperatures, convincing demonstration that the spectroscopic and dynamical properties of "single" molecules are consistent with those of an ensemble and further demonstration of how line-narrowing and single-molecule spectroscopies combined with external fields can improve our understanding of intermolecular interactions. The conference topics reflect the interdisciplinary and fundamental-applied nature of the HBRS meeting. The meeting provides a superb learning experience for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Not only do they interact with leading scientists from around the world, they will be exposed to science from several disciplines and are stimulated to think about the applications of basic research. %%% The technological impact that is resulting from these studies of structural disorder and electronic structure and dynamics in glasses, polymers and proteins is large. Advanced applications such as frequency and time domain optical storage, and chemical sensing are examples of sign ificant developments. ***
