Travel Support for Young Faculty Members and Postdocs to attend the Symposium on "Stimuli-Responsive Polymers" at the ACS National Spring Meeting, April 6-10, 2008, New Orleans, LA

智力优势：在过去的二十年里，人们对探索和开发刺激响应型聚合物的兴趣激增，这种聚合物是一种大分子材料，通常可以可逆地改变其至少一种关键性质，以响应外部刺激，如温度、pH、离子强度、溶剂的变化，以及光或电场的照射。对它们进行所需功能编程的可能性清楚地将刺激响应型聚合物与其他具有“传统”功能特性的先进材料区分开来。感知、判断、运动和识别等被展示的或有针对性的高级功能，引发了不准确但相当描述性的术语“智能材料”的使用。一方面，基本的科学好奇心和广泛的技术机会相结合，一方面承诺将影响生活的几乎所有领域，另一方面定义了对这些材料日益增长的兴趣。本次研讨会的目标是将资深专家、职业生涯初期的科学家和来自不同学科的学生聚集在一起，分享最新和最重要的研究，重点是刺激响应性聚合物的设计、合成、加工和应用。四个半天的口头会议，约30场演讲将集中在(1)机械响应材料；(2)生物应用的响应性聚合物；(3)具有特殊传感能力的聚合物；以及(4)响应电磁辐射的聚合物。愿意作口头陈述的参与者和在STEM学科中代表性不足的群体将被优先考虑。

INTELLECTUAL MERIT: The past two decades have seen a surging interest in theexploration and exploitation of stimulus-responsive polymers, i.e. macromolecularmaterials which, usually reversibly, change at least one of their key properties in responseto an external stimulus such as such as a change in temperature, pH, ionic strength,solvent, and irradiation with light or electric fields. The possibility to program them withdesired functions clearly distinguishes stimulus-responsive polymers from otheradvanced materials with 'traditional' functional characteristics. Demonstrated or targetedhigh-level functions such as perception, judgment, movement, and recognition, havetriggered the inaccurate but rather descriptive use of the term 'intelligent materials'. Thecombination of fundamental scientific curiosity on the one hand and the broadtechnological opportunities that promise to impact virtually all areas of life on the otherdefine the increasing interest in these materials. The goal of this symposium is to bringtogether established experts, scientists at the beginning of their careers, and students fromdifferent disciplines, to share most up-to-date and important research focused on thedesign, synthesis, processing and application of stimuli-responsive polymers. Four halfdayoral sessions with about 30 talks will concentrate on (1) MechanoresponsiveMaterials; (2) Responsive Polymers for Bio-Applications; (3) Polymers with UnusualSensing Capabilities; and (4) Polymers that Respond to Electromagnetic Radiation.BROADER IMPACT: All of the funds awarded from NSF will be used to facilitatesymposium attendance by faculty members that are at the beginning of their careers (andtheir students) and who might otherwise not be able to attend. Priority will be given toparticipants who would like to give oral presentations and from groups that areunderrepresented in STEM disciplines.