US-Mexican Workshop: Self-Assembly in Biology and Materials Science. An International Workshop on Current Problems in Complex Fluids; Huatulco, Oaxaca, Mexico; June 2010

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports a research workshop, organized jointly by Mathias Lösche (Carnegie Mellon University) and Jaime Ruiz-Garcia (Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí), to highlight recent progress in our understanding of self-assembly processes in the life sciences and to identify implications derived from this knowledge for design of synthetic materials. The meeting will take place in an interdisciplinary setting that focuses on the interface between biological physics and quantitative biology. An important goal is to provide an environment for the establishment and continuation of collaborative research initiatives between the Mexican and U.S. scientific research communities working in these areas. The workshop will be held in Huatulco, Oaxaca, Mexico, June 8 to 11, 2010. The Mexican science agency CONACYT will support the Mexican participants. This workshop will include research presentations and discussions focused on the following topics of relevance in biology: Supramolecular Biological Structures Controlled by Nucleic Acids; Colloidal Self-Assembly in Functional Materials and Membranes and Soft Matter in Reduced Dimensionality. It will foster communication and contacts between a diverse group of senior researchers, which are the leaders in their respective fields, and young researchers, such as tenure-track faculty, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students from the U.S. and Mexico. In the selection of invited attendees, proper attention has been paid to bringing together a group of researchers in which women and minority faculty members are well represented. Similar efforts are being made to the selection of student participants. This award is being jointly funded between the Division of Materials Research and the Office of International Science and Engineering of NSF.