Towards Molecules Performing Useful Work

The new Artificial Molecular Switches and Motors GRC will focus on molecules that are designed to change their shape in a controllable and reversible fashion (a.k.a. molecular switches), and can be employed as devices that create motion (molecular motors), ultimately paving the way towards the smallest possible entities capable of performing useful work (molecular machines). The nature of the field of Artificial Molecular Switches and Motors is truly interdisciplinary. Organic chemists design and study diverse families of molecules capable of performing reversible switching motions. Computational chemists contribute to understanding these processes and improve the molecular designs. Colloidal, polymer, and materials chemists as well as engineers provide the ability to integrate molecular switches into higher-order architectures, giving rise to nanoscale systems and ultimately macroscopic devices - which physicists help understand in a quantitative manner. Artificial molecular switches also make their way to biological systems, where they are used to study and alter various biological processes. We have composed a program that includes all of these groups of researchers in an effort to create an interdisciplinary forum for fostering interactions, encouraging collaborations, and facilitating further development of the field. At the same time, the proposed attendants will comprise a balanced mix of both established researchers as well as emerging investigators in the field. We strongly believe that GRC, with its great tradition of open exchange of ideas and presentation of most recent results, would be an ideal home to the forum for discussions at the frontiers of Artificial Molecular Switches and Motors.