This award will support the participation of six U.S. scientists in a joint U.S.-Japan seminar on the topic of inorganic and organometallic polymers. This field is of current interest and importance because of the potential utilization of these substances as electronic materials, biomedical polymers, and precursors to ceramics. The seminar will emphasize preparation, characterization, and applications of various polymers including polyphosphazenes, polysiloxanes, polysilanes, polysilazanes, and polyborazines. Both traditional and novel synthetic methods will be covered, and a variety of instrumental methods for determining the structures and other properties of these polymers will be discussed, as will structure-property relationships. Though the emphasis of the meeting is to be on basic research, some attention will be given also to new applications of the research developments. The U.S. and Japan are two leading countries in the field of inorganic polymers. There is complementary research in the two countries, with stronger emphasis on synthesis and applications in the U.S. and on characterization in Japan. Participating in the seminar will be U.S. and Japanese scientists active in polymer synthesis, polymer physics, instrumental methods of polymer characterization, solid state polymer properties, and various polymer applications. The seminar will be held March 25-27, 1991, in Nagoya, Japan. The organizers are Dr. Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, Department of Chemistry, Carnegie-Mellon University; Dr. Kenneth Wynne, Chemistry Division, Office of Naval Research; Dr. Kenkichi Murakami, Department of Material Science, Teikyo University, Utsunomiya, Japan; and Dr. Katzumichi Ono, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
