Conference: Support for 22nd US-Japan Seminar on Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics in Cleveland, OH

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY This award supports the 22nd US-Japan Seminar on Dielectric and Piezoelectric Materials, a four-day international scientific meeting to be held November 15–18, 2026, at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Dielectric and piezoelectric materials are special classes of materials that store electrical energy and convert between mechanical and electrical energy, respectively. They are found in everyday technologies such as smartphones, medical ultrasound devices, sonar systems, energy harvesting sensors, and high-frequency communications equipment. Advancing the science behind these materials is essential to strengthening American leadership in electronics, clean energy, and national defense. This Seminar, held every two years and alternating between the United States and Japan, has brought together leading researchers from both nations for over four decades. Unlike large, sprawling scientific conferences, this meeting is intentionally small and focused, ensuring that every participant engages in every session. This format generates unusually deep and productive scientific conversations that larger venues simply cannot replicate. NSF's investment in this Seminar is a sound use of federal funds because it directly advances the national interest by strengthening international research partnerships, accelerating scientific discovery in strategically important materials, and training the next generation of American scientists and engineers. Graduate students and early-career researchers gain rare, direct access to world-leading experts from both countries. Participants come from universities, national laboratories, and industry, ensuring that new scientific knowledge flows toward real-world technological applications. This Seminar represents an enduring and cost-effective model of international scientific cooperation that amplifies innovation and discovery in both nations. TECHNICAL SUMMARY This award supports the planning, logistics, and execution of the 22nd US-Japan Seminar on Dielectric and Piezoelectric Materials, to be held November 15–18, 2026, at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. The Seminar is a long-standing bilateral forum, convened biennially for over four decades, dedicated exclusively to advancing fundamental and applied understanding of dielectric and piezoelectric materials, which are central to energy storage, electromechanical transduction, sensing, actuation, and high-frequency communications technologies. The scientific program is organized into five technical focus areas: (1) basic science and characterization of structure and properties; (2) multilayer ceramic capacitor high-power and high-frequency dielectrics; (3) new materials, synthesis, and properties for energy and environmental applications; (4) piezoelectric materials and their applications; and (5) materials science, integration, and application of thin films. These sessions address open questions in defect chemistry, phase transitions, nonlinear electromechanical coupling, crystallographic microstructure relationships, and materials behavior under extreme conditions — spanning solid-state chemistry, condensed matter physics, materials science, mechanical engineering, and computational modeling. The Seminar's format is structured to maximize scientific depth and cross-disciplinary exchange. Each session pairs plenary presentations from US and Japanese researchers with extended poster sessions that promote intensive dialogue. Attendees include researchers from academia, national laboratories, and industry, ensuring diverse perspectives and facilitating pathways from fundamental discovery to technological application. Approximately 100 participants are expected, each required to submit an extended abstract, 4-6 pages long, that is distributed as an abstract book at the event. The broader impacts are substantial. The Seminar provides early-career researchers and graduate students with direct mentorship and international research exposure. By combining complementary US and Japanese strengths in materials synthesis, characterization, and theory, it generates collaborative advances that neither community could readily achieve independently. A post-Seminar report summarizing technical highlights, emerging research directions, and newly identified challenges will be submitted to NSF. 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.