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Host: Mathematical Sciences Research Institute
Sponsor: MSRI, NERSC
Homepage: http://www.msri.org/activities/events/9899/materials/
Email: materials@msri.org
Organizers: Andrew Canning (NERSC), David Hoffman (MSRI), Brigitte Pansu (LPS, Orsay), Edwin Thomas (Materials Science and Engineering, MIT), Michel A. Van Hove (Materials Sciences Division LBNL)
Description:
Self assembly of materials such as block copolymers, surfactants and liquid crystals naturally produces a rich variety of regular mesophases. These may be
characterized by the interface between components, and understanding this interface is key to prediction of material properties. At present the relationship
between the curvature and topology of the dividing surfaces and the relevant molecular and macromolecular physics is not well understood. Moreover, there is
only a partial theoretical understanding of the range of possible periodic surfaces that might occur as interfaces. Here, differential geometry is playing an
important role in the experimental physics of materials. Control over the structure and properties of materials via synthesis of molecules that, when assembled,
will lead to a prescribed interface is a long term goal of supramolecular chemistry. Learning how to produce interfaces corresponding to various symmetries
and topologies is a joint goal of both mathematicians and materials scientists.
The conference will bring together experimentalists, theorists and mathematicians to discuss newly discovered microstructured material systems, computational modeling of materials and the relevant advances in the understanding and classification of embedded periodic surfaces that satisfy variational and symmetry constraints. The study of geometric structure and the desire to predict and control properties of self assembling materials are themes common to other parts of material science. Some of the main lectures at this conference will touch on these areas.
Speakers: Frank Bates (Minnesota), J-F Charvolin (Orsay), Viet Elser (Cornell), Eliot Fried (U. Illinois), Greg Forest (UNC), Karsten Grosse-Brauckmann (Bonn), Sol Gruner (Cornell), Thomas Lubensky (Penn), Robert Meyer (Brandeis), Murugappan Muthukumar (UMASS), Brigitte Pansu (Orsay), John Seddon (Imperial Coll), Richard Templer (Imperial), Edwin Thomas (MIT), Joseph Zaszindinski (UCSB)
Mail Address:
The Geometry of Interfaces in Mesoscopic Materials Mathematical Sciences Research Institute 1000 Centennial Drive Berkeley, CA 94720-5070.
Date received: February 23, 1999
© 2008 Atlas Conferences Inc.