A symposium entitled Rational Synthesis of Solid-State Materials will be held as part of the South East Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society to address the arsenal of tools now available for the rational synthesis of materials and to demonstrate past synthetic successes, provide the challenge of current target materials, and provide emphasis on topics related to training the next generation of scientists in this area. This meeting is in response to recommendations that appear in the 1988 PROCEEDINGS OF THE WORKSHOP ON THE PRESENT STATUS AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS OF SOLID STATE CHEMISTRY AND MATERIALS, and in particular to "a long term goal in synthesis in solid state chemistry to make materials by design: e.g. to make what is wanted instead of seeing what can be made." NSF will support two female invited speakers, and 10 grants to facilitate the participation of graduate students, postdocs, and/or junior faculty. %%% The rapidly emerging and changing field of solid-state chemistry and materials has undergone explosive growth over the past decade both in academic and industrial labsoratories. Part of this trend is due to the discovery of new materials with important technoligical applications. ***