The proposal requests NSF support for a limited scope NSF workshop on this topic, in the style of other NSF workshops in targeted areas of emerging interdisciplinary research. The goal of the proposed NSF workshop on Programmed Self-Assembly will be restricted to study (rather than conduct new research) the research challenges, applications, and opportunities to NSF in the areas of Self-Assembly with respect to Self-Assembly methods that allow for Programmability.
Intellectual Merit Self-assembly is a key emerging interdisciplinary topic of essential importance to existing programs within NSF, and would be very positively impacted by a workshop centering on the (largely until now unexplored) topic of Programmed Self-Assembly. The proposed workshop will consider scientific challenges to developing Self-Assembly methods that relate to or utilize computational methods, provide programmability and are applied to scales ranging from molecular to micro to even larger scales.
Broader Impact This NSF workshop will be interdisciplinary at its core, with participants from Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physics, Material Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Mathematics. It will impact both the research community in Nanoscience as well as other disciplines engaged in the study of self-assembly at larger scales. It will also benefit the NSF to allow for the identification of targeted research opportunities and challenges. To insure involvement by graduate students, a number of their travel and local expenses will be supported. The PI and his institution Duke University purely as a service make the proposal to the community - there will no overhead charged on any aspect of this Workshop.
