Theme: Soft Matter

Plenary Speaker on Thursday 5 July:

George M Whitesides, Harvard University, USA

Topic: Electronic and Opto-Electronic Polymers

Keynote speakers:
Klaus Müllen, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany
Professor Mark Thompson, University of Southern California, USA

Materials, processing and devices based on conjugated organic, organometallic and polymeric materials.   Materials and processing methods that enable these materials for electronic and optical device applications are included.

Topic: Functional Liquid Crystals

Keynote Speakers:
Stuart Rowan, Case Western Reserve University, USA
Mysongsoo Lee, Yonsei University, South Korea

Liquid crystals are one type of soft materials that self-assemble into complex, hierarchical structures. Functional liquid crystals combine the self-assembling properties of liquid crystals with those of specific functional molecules. They have the potential to yield two- and three-dimensional self-organised nanostructures, key in the development of new optical, electronic and magnetic materials and devices. 

Topic: Nanostructured Polymers

Keynote Speakers:
Ian Hamley, University of Reading, UK
Thomas Russell, University of Massachusetts, USA

Synthetic macromolecules are inherently capable of self-organizing into a variety of periodic and nonperiodic morphologies, possessing a characteristic length scale typically of the order of 10-100 nanometres. 

Such materials include, but are not limited to:  

• block, multi-block, and graft copolymers
• ionomers
• crystallisable homopolymers
• nanoporous polymers
• hybrid organic/inorganic polymers

Nanostructured polymers currently represent one of the most active areas of research in the whole of polymer science, represented not only by synthesis but also by theory, structural analysis and applications development.