Conference: 8th International Soft Matter Conference (ISMC-2024)

Technical and Non-technical Abstract This proposal seeks support for the International Soft Matter Conference (ISMC2024) and a preceding Junior Investigator Workshop, which will take place in Raleigh, NC, July 29 – August 2, 2024, and July 27 to July 29, 2024, respectively. We expect 800+ participants to attend. This conference is organized by the recently formed Soft Matter Association of the Americas and is promoted by the IUPAP Working Group 15 – Soft Matter. The conference is meant to bring together scientists from different subfields of soft matter (polymers, colloids, biological systems) with different expertise (chemists, physicists, biologists, engineers) and is the first large-scale such conference organized in the Americas. The goal is to exchange ideas and techniques to accelerate progress in each area and soft matter science. Another objective of ISMC-2024 is to raise the international visibility of soft matter research in the US. A satellite Young Investigator Workshop for students and postdoctoral fellows will take place over 2.5 days before the International Soft Matter Conference. 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.