This U.S.-Mexico award will support a workshop on current problems in complex fluids with a particular emphasis on self-assembling systems. The workshop, which will take place in Oaxaca, Mexico, July 10-14, 2001 in conjunction with a major international meeting on statistical physics, STATPHYS 21, is being co-organized by Dr. Charles M. Knobler, UCLA and Dr. Carmen Varea, of the Institute of Physics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and colleagues at UNAM and at the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosi. This activity is being jointly supported between the Division of International Programs and the Chemistry Division of NSF.
The workshop will discuss current developments in the field of self-assembling systems and related areas and help to stimulate joint research initiatives between the US and Mexican research communities. The area of complex fluids is a multidisciplinary research area that has attracted increased attention over the past decade due to a variety of technological applications as well as connections to nanoscale and biomimetic materials. A variety of materials fall under this category, sharing common properties useful in attempts to describe and characterize them.
