NSF Workshop: Frontiers in Polymer Science and Engineering

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NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:The project "NSF Workshop: Frontiers in Polymer Science and Engineering" will examine outstanding new opportunities for research and education at the forefront of the field of polymer science and polymeric materials. This class of materials plays a central role in innumerable items of commerce that directly affect the US economy, the daily lives, and the health and welfare of our entire population. The workshop will draw together approximately 70 scientists, engineers, and educators from around the nation, working in universities, companies, and national laboratories, and representing a broad diversity of areas of expertise. A central goal is to identify the most promising opportunities and critical areas for future investment in the research necessary to sustain national leadership in the science and technology that underpins this vital and multidisciplinary field. Workshop participants, representing a broadly diverse group of researchers and educators from around the nation, will collectively shape a vision for future research and education that will be captured in a comprehensive report, to be widely disseminated to the broader community and to policy makers and administrators across the country. TECHNICAL SUMMARY:This workshop will address a comprehensive set of topics aimed at identifying exciting and promising future opportunities across the interdisciplinary field of polymer science and engineering. It will be a decadal-type study across the horizon of the field, following up on its predecessor, the 2007 NSF Workshop on Interdisciplinary Globally-Leading Polymer Science and Engineering. Latest developments associated with advancing state-of-the-art experimental, theoretical, and computational methods will be examined with the goal of identifying the most important challenges, opportunities, and emerging areas associated with polymer design and synthesis, molecular and structural characterization, a wide range of material properties, processing, and the impact of macromolecules on technology and society, including on related fields that span other areas of science and technology. The two-day workshop will begin with a set of plenary lectures designed to help shape detailed discussions in subsequent break-out sessions, each involving a group drawn from a diverse spectrum of participants. Collective inputs from each breakout session, along with accompanying assessments of educational and related opportunities, will be formed into a draft executive summary by the organizing committee immediately following the workshop. A comprehensive report will be prepared by the organizing committee detailing the findings and conclusions of the workshop. This report will be widely disseminated and posted on a public website. A summary of the report, highlighting the most important findings, will be submitted for publication in a leading polymer journal.