Conference: 98th ACS Colloid & Surface Science Symposium

The award will partially cover travel expenses of graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, junior faculty members, and invited speakers from institutions in the United States to participate in the conference entitled, "98th American Chemical Society Colloid & Surface Science Symposium,” which will be held in Seattle, WA, June 23-26, 2024. This is the largest annual meeting of the Colloids community with 500 anticipated attendees. The intellectual merit of this symposium lies in the exchange of scientific ideas, presentations of cutting-edge research, and exposure to a richly diverse array of topics in many areas relevant to the CBET community including technical sessions on Active Matter, Colloids for Energy and Sustainability, Self- and Directed Assembly, Wetting and Adhesion, and Machine Learning and AI for Colloids. The conference will be attended by both prominent and young scientists who will be discussing present and future directions of research and research challenges. The conference will foster cross-fertilization of ideas among researchers in cutting-edge areas of colloids, soft- and active matter, self- and directed assembly, and relevant emergent areas and will address challenges involved in advancing the field. The American Chemical Society Colloid and Surface Science Symposium is a long standing and most recognized in the areas of colloid and interfacial sciences. The meeting at University of Washington will be organized into oral and poster sessions that cover many research areas and includes topics that are of special relevance to industry. Special consideration is given to young leaders in the field and underrepresented minority researchers to present their research and/or serve as session chairs. The diversity of the speakers and organizers helps maintain a high degree of creativity and innovation alongside well-established work in the field. The organization of the symposium involves a wide circle of faculty from regional universities as well as representatives from non-educational institutions and companies in the area. The funds will be used to support the registration costs for invited participants to the meeting, including but not limited to students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty members, and industry speakers for Connect the Dots Session. The NSF support will be utilized with a special emphasis on supporting underrepresented students, increasing participant diversity and involving early career researchers. 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.