Symposium on Advances in Polymer Brushes at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Washington, DC; August 28 - September 1, 2005

University Of Akron, Akron OH

Investigators

Abstract

This is a Conference proposal for support of an ACS Symposium on "Advances in Polymer Brushes" to be held as part of the national ACS Meeting in August 2005. This is a very active area of research, which is closely tied in to nanoscience. Brushes (i.e. closely spaced polymer molecules tethered on surfaces) are of great interest for applications in microfluidics, tailoring of surface properties, and even as "chemical gates". The PI is one of the world's leaders in that area, and the list of invited speakers is really a "who's who" of top practitioners in the field. This list of speakers also has very good diversity in terms of people, institutions, topical areas, and international presence. US participants will undoubtedly benefit greatly from this Symposium. Funds are requested specifically to defray costs of participants in the early stages of their careers or new to the field of polymer brushes. Therefore, the Polymers Program is convinced that this would be a very beneficial opportunity in terms of both intellectual merit and broader impacts. We recommend funding the $3000 requested.