Third NSF Workshop: The Status of Solid State Chemistry and its Impact in the Physical Sciences; Northwestern University; May 2006

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Non-technical abstractSolid State Chemistry continues to undergo dramatic growth and increasingly active involvement in emerging interdisciplinary research areas. This is due to many factors. These include the widespread appreciation of the importance of new materials in many areas of basic science and technology, the recent opening of the nanometer length scale for chemical reaction and molecular manipulation, the realization that complex molecular systems can be designed to display properties with characteristics unique or complimentary to those in the traditional solid state, and many other factors as well. The field has been continuously open to the accommodation of new ideas and directions as they develop. As a consequence of this continuing growth and redefinition, it is important for to us to periodically consider our current directions and future goals as a community. In response to this need, the goal for this workshop titled Third NSF Workshop: The Status of Solid State Chemistry and its Impact in the Physical Sciences is to assess the current state of solid state chemistry and explore its impact on neighboring disciplines and industry. This workshop follows the first workshop held in 1998 on The Present Status and Future Directions of Solid State Chemistry and Materials and focused discussion on the core of our discipline. Continuing developments of the field, especially in nanoscale science and a variety of highly interdisciplinary areas, became the topic of a second workshop held in 2001 at UC-Davis on Future Directions in Solid State Chemistry. The results of our discussions will be disseminated to the community as a whole through publication in a materials chemistry journal and on the internet. Technical abstractThe goal of the third NSF workshop on The Status of Solid State Chemistry and its Impact in the Physical Sciences is to assess the current state of solid state chemistry and explore its impact on neighboring disciplines in the physical sciences and industry. We plan to articulate the solid state chemistry communitiess sense of the opportunities and directions it wishes to take in the future, and to seek insights into how students ought to best be trained. The findings of the workshop could act as a vehicle for informing the solid state chemistry community of programs and opportunities for support at NSF and elsewhere. The workshop will produce a report that will be available to the scientific community and the funding agencies, in particular to NSF. In contrast to the two workshops that have preceded the proposed one in 1998 and 2001, and focused respectively on the core of our discipline and the interfaces of solid state chemistry with other disciplines in both the biological and physical sciences, the focus of the proposed workshop will be two-faceted: (i) we will seek a close look at the discipline of solid state chemistry in the beginning of the third millennium and (ii) we will explore its continued impact and relationship to neighboring disciplines in the physical sciences and also industry. Topics to be discussed include accomplishments, emerging research directions and underdeveloped areas. Furthermore, an assessment of how solid-state chemistry is impacting the physical sciences, through continuing advances and the many ways of interacting across disciplinary boundaries, would help the NSF and the scientific community better appreciate its value and contributions in the greater scientific and societal context. Important community input for the workshop will also include the discussion of existing and new modes for educating students, and the development and use of national facilities for performing state-of-the-art research in our field.