The conferences aim to provide an interdisciplinary platform for researchers to discuss the fundamental nanoscale physics and chemistry that are central to the growth of crystals for a wide array of technologies.
West Section
The conferences focus on current and emerging challenges in understanding, engineering, and design of crystal growth in nature and technology. We welcome contributions in areas such as crystallization of biological and biomimetic materials, synthesis of crystalline material systems for renewable energy, environment and sustainability, interplay between synthesis and performance of functional materials, and fundamental aspects of nucleation, growth and phase transformations in a wide range of crystalline material systems.. The registration fee always includes all sessions, lodging, recreation and meals.
As a guide, in the past the conference themes have included the following topics:
crystallization of biological/biomimetic materials; mechanisms and dynamics of self-assembly, including supramolecular and/or hierarchical assembly of organic and biogenic materials (e.g., polysaccharides, proteins, peptides/peptoids, DNA and RNA, and synthesized polymers); nucleation, growth, morphology (e.g. chirality) and phase transformations of inorganic components in these systems; interplay between self-assembly and function; interactions at the inorganic-organic interface; machine learning/AI-based models for modeling biological/biomimetic crystallization; experimental, theoretical and computational approaches aimed at bridging fundamental principles and applications; challenges in biomimetic/bioinspired syntheses and scalable manufacturing.
Biological and Biomimetic Materials
Energy and Environmental Material Systems
nucleation, growth, and morphological evolution of material systems (e.g., metals, metal oxides, perovskites, and metal-organic frameworks) for energy harvesting, storage and conversion, catalysis, water treatment, environmental remediation, and climate change; interplay between crystallization and function in these material systems; crystallization at interfaces (electrode/solution, substrate/solution, membrane/solution, solution/solution), crystallization kinetics, morphology and structure-property relationships for in-device system performance and manufacturing; operando characterization methods and experimental techniques; theoretical, simulation and data-enabled machine learning approaches for understanding and engineered performance of these material systems; processing and manufacturing challenges.
crystallization of functional materials (magnetic, optoelectronics, excitonic, photonics, plasmonic, phononic, thermoelectric, etc.); interplay between synthesis and functionality induced by chemistry and/or low-dimensionality (0D, 1D, 2D, thin films); thermodynamically dictated and/or seeded growth of band-gap engineered materials; surface/interfacial/domain wall engineering via controlled nucleation, growth and phase transformations; bottom-up self/directed assembly of architected and mesostructured materials; crystal growth based routes for synthesis of optical/mechanical metamaterials.
Functional Crystals and Architectures
Fundamentals of Crystallization
theoretical, experimental, and computational studies on nucleation, crystal growth, phase transformation; thermodynamics (crystal structure, shape, size) and kinetics (atomic-scale diffusion, reaction pathways) of bulk and low dimensional crystal growth; fundamentals of self- and directed-assembly; morphology, stress and interfacial microstructural evolution during crystal growth; inorganic and organic bulk crystallization from liquid-phase solutions and melts; crystal growth on surfaces, 2D interfaces or in confined spaces; near-/far from-equilibrium particulate assembly and fusion processes, including patchy particles; computational modeling techniques and data-enabled integrated genomic efforts understanding for crystal growth across scales; process modeling for scalable manufacturing of crystals