This award would allow 12 young American polymer scientists and 18 young German polymer scientists to attend a U.S.-Federal Republic of Germany Joint Seminar on "Current Developments and Trends in Polymer Science," to be held in Yountsville, California on September 7-11, 1987. The seminar will address critical areas in advanced materials science through a well-balanced program that includes both the physics and chemistry of macromolecules. The proposed seminar is being planned by two Americans, Professors Samuel I. Stupp, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and David A. Tirrell, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and four professors from the Federal Republic of Germany, Claus D. Eisenbach and Oskar Nuyken, University of Bayreuth, Hans W. Spiess, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Science, Mainz, and Joachim Wendorff, Deutsches Kunststoff-Institut, Darmstadt. The seminar will have 16 Americans (4 not funded by NSF) meet with 18 Germans for five days to hear presentations and to have discussions on current topics in polymer science. A purpose of the seminar is to expand the scope of the personal and technical interactions between the American and German scientists and to initiate joint research projects. The relatively isolated location of the seminar and the small number of participants will facilitate informal discussion. The proposed seminar should allow the American and Germans to explore scientific and methodological issues in modern polymer science. The seminar will provide a setting for presenting and testing new ideas about an important and rapidly changing area and it should have a positive effect on research in this field.
