This award will help support a technical conference entitled 2014 Colloidal, Macromolecular and Polyelectrolyte Solutions: Toward Active Materials Gordon Research Conference and Seminar. The conference, which will be held February 16-21, 2014 in Ventura, California, will bring together about 180 leading academic, industrial, and governmental researchers, postdoctoral students and graduate students to present their research in colloid and polymer science. The theme of the conference this year is active matter, which is a relatively new field in soft matter physics and engineering. Active matter refers to particles, colloids, polymers, and other objects that can generate movement, which makes them especially interesting to the research community.
Broader Impact
The theme of the conference is timely. Active matter includes materials are important in naturally occurring systems such as certain biological cells and other biological structures, as well as in the design of new products such as encapsulated drugs, gels, surfactants, and polymer composites. Researchers from a wide variety of disciplines and institutions will benefit by participating in the conference. The conference will be preceded by a special one-day seminar that will provide training and mentoring for students conducting research into these interesting materials. Throughout the seminar and conference, poster sessions, panels, and other events will give students opportunities to present their work, interact with leaders in the field, and receive insight and guidance to advance their career development. The organizers are making special efforts to attract participants from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in science and engineering.
NSF funds were used to support the 2014 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and Seminar (GRS) on "Colloidal, Macromolecular & Polyelectrolyte Solutions: Toward Active Materials." These events took place February 16-21, 2014 in Ventura, California. The 168 attendees included a broad diversity of attendees in terms of demographics, national origin, and research expertise (Figure 1). NSF funds were used to support registration and travel expenses for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers who are the life blood of future research labs. In addition, NSF funds were used to support registration and travel expenses for distinguished invited speakers and discussion leaders from industrial, governmental, and academic institutions, in the diverse fields of colloids, macromolecules, and polyelectrolytes. As a result of the outstanding representation present for the whole week, this GRC-GRS were also supported by industrial participants including Dow Chemical, PPG, Firmenich, and Dispersion Technology. Intellectual Merit. Recent advances in active matter – matter that has dynamic movement and function – has stimulated new avenues of fundamental research in colloidal and polymer science. Hour-long invited talks and ample discussion led to significant discussions about technological topics like micro-battery design, lab-on-a-chip breakthroughs, and therapeutics delivery, in addition to scientific topics like functional gels, self-swimming particles, and active-particle packing. These topics are critical to current and future commercial technologies, and form the frontier of this scientific discipline. This GRC has been active since 1984, and yet its topics and participants were fresh, vibrant, and cutting-edge relevant in 2014. Broader Impact. The setting of our GRC-GRS fostered an entire week of close contact between leading professional researchers, PhD students, and post-docs. Outcomes from the GRC and GRS include new partnerships, collaborations, and relationships; as well as the mentorship and development of new opportunities for PhD students and post-doctoral candidates. At the GRC, an informal "Entrepreneurship" session was held that involved industrial participants from Dow, Firmenich, and Dispersion Technology (Figure 2). The PhD students and post-docs who attended this hour-plus long event learned technology advancement, from startup companies to large global corporations. A significant enhancement of this year’s GRC was starting a Gordon Research Seminar (GRS), led by Drs. Chris Wirth and Teresa Kirschling (Figure 3), two budding scientists. The GRS specifically focused on the education and mentoring of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, with highly-regarded invited speakers and discussion leaders. Interactions discussed academic, industrial, and government careers, as well as challenges in excelling in a research career. The students who attended the GRS on the weekend stayed for the entire GRC the following week.
