This Americas Program award will support the first U.S.-Mexico bilateral symposium on the physics of complex fluids, organized by Dr. Philip Pincus of the University of California, Santa Barbara and Dr. Magdaleno Medina-Noyola, of the Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The primary objectives of the symposium are the development of specific collaborations between U.S. and Mexico; the establishment of an organizational framework for nurturing continuing exchanges; and the development of a plan for fostering mutual access to special facilities and instruments in both countries. The complex fluids field, a developing multidisciplinary scientific area involving physics, chemistry and biology, has applications to a diverse range of technologies, including, among others, enhanced oil recovery, processing of high performance structural ceramics and polymers, biomolecular materials, and microreactors. Consequently, the symposium will involve representatives from academia and industrial laboratories as well.
