Workshop: Ninth International Workshop on Modeling in Crystal Growth (IWMCG-9); Kailua-Kona, Hawaii; 21-24 October 2018

University Of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis MN

Investigators

Abstract

The Ninth International Workshop on Modeling in Crystal Growth (IWMCG-6) will bring together top senior and promising junior researchers of both academe and industry from the United States, Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world to identify common priorities, allow the exchange of new ideas, and foster future collaborative work. This workshop, held from October 21-24, 2018, and ideally situated mid-way between the United States and Asia in Hawaii, builds upon a history of successful triennial meetings on this topic. This award will support five additional U.S.-based young researchers (graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and young faculty) to participate in the symposium, where they will be exposed to cutting-edge research and to the broadly-based, international community of this field. The topic of the workshop addresses an area, crystal growth, that has been identified by the National Research Council as strategically important and in need of strengthening in the U.S. Advances in this area will impact advanced manufacturing processes that affect electronic and photonic devices for information, energy, defense, and detector systems, the production of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and more. Improvements in these crystal-base systems will favorably impact wide-ranging domains relevant to national prosperity, defense, and health. In addition to promoting discourse and collaboration among researchers in this area, the support of this workshop will promote an important and timely research topic. Crystal growth is itself profoundly interesting and significant, and modeling such processes, the focus of this workshop, is inherently interdisciplinary and demanding. From a fundamental vantage point, studying crystal growth yields important understanding of thermodynamic phase change, associated self-assembly and pattern-formation phenomena, and kinetic and transport limitations to growth. From a technological viewpoint, a successful crystal growth process represents a quintessential advanced manufacturing system, whose successful modeling and subsequent understanding, control, and optimization are inherently challenging and valuable. NSF support will allow young researchers in the U.S. an opportunity to advance their careers through international exposure and future collaboration in this area. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.