Introduction

The meeting was organised by the RSC Faraday Division.

The field of nucleation, growth, inhibition and dissolution of solids is a topic of enduring importance in physical chemistry, materials science, mineralogy and bio-sciences. It presents wide-ranging fundamental scientific challenges, but is also of major importance to industries including oil and gas, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biomaterials and mineral extraction.

The field has reached an exciting stage where new opportunities are emerging in both theory and experiment. This theme was the topic of previous Faraday Discussion meetings in 1949 (FD5) and, more recently, in 1993 (FD95). However, with the rapid developments in new theoretical and experimental techniques and concepts, the time was ripe for a new exploration of the field via a discussion meeting.

The Programme

The excellent attendance of 114 participants, with 24 invited and contributed talks and a further 34 posters, provided a lively discussion of the new science and applications presented at the meeting.

The outstanding opening lecture by Prof. Lia Addadi from the Weizmann Institute in Israel, who was awarded the Spiers memorial medal during the conference banquet, set the tone for new science of the highest quality, which was matched by intensive and stimulating discussion. The breadth of topics covered clearly illustrated the range of the contemporary field of crystal growth and nucleation. Recurring themes were the increasing importance of solution chemistry and the growing interactions between computation and experiment.

The proceedings of this meeting have now been published (see journal links on this page) and provides an excellent summary of the present state of the field.

Scientific Committee

Professor Richard Catlow (Chair), (Royal Institution, London, UK)

Professor Roger Davey, (University of Manchester, UK)

Dr Nora de Leeuw, (University College London, UK)

Professor Jamshed Anwar, (University of Bradford, UK)

Professor Pat Unwin, (University of Warwick, UK)

Professor Kevin Roberts, (University of Leeds, UK)

Supporting Organisations

We would like to thank the British Association for Crystal Growth (BACG) for their co-sponsorship of the meeting. BACG kindly organised the buffet to accompany the poster and wine reception on 2 April.

We are also grateful to the UK Network for Crystal Growth and Nucleation of Complex Materials for their generous support.