The Scope of the international symposium on Non-Equilibrium Soft Matter

This symposium is organized as a research activity of our project "Creation of Non-Equilibrium Soft Matter Physics -Structure and Dynamics of Mesoscopic Systems-" supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on the Priority Area No. 463, 2006-2010 from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.

"Soft matter" is a generic name for materials such as polymers, liquid crystals, colloids, emulsions and biological materials. Of particular interest and importance in the study of soft matter is to clarify, from a unified view point, the self-organized formation of the mesoscopic structures and non-equilibrium states, and dynamics of the assemblies of these molecules under various external fields such as the flow/stress fields, electric and magnetic fields, and optical illumination. The symposium will focus on the latest theoretical and experimental results and explore new directions in this fascinating area of science for the 21st century. Furthermore, we hope that this will be a good opportunity for up-and-coming researchers to initiate or strengthen their international cooperative research activities.

The main topics of this symposium will be molecular dynamics in structure-forming dense polymer systems, mesoscopic structural transitions, soft matter far from equilibrium, and the statistical theories and computer simulations of soft matter. Experimental or theoretical works on equilibrium properties of soft matter will also be included.

Important dates

February 29, 2008
: Abstract submission due
March 31, 2008
: Registration
March 31, 2008
: Notification of acceptance
June 2, 2008
: Proceedings submission due (invited speakers only)