Strategies for Materials Discovery: New Functional Materials and Their Applications

The discovery of a new functional material is just the beginning of a long process that may culminate in an application. Following the initial discovery, the material must be thoroughly characterized, have its physical properties measured and, undoubtedly, optimized to enable its use in an existing or new application. This deceptively straightforward, yet multifaceted process involves tremendous effort, where every step requires significant amounts of time and success.

This meeting on solid state chemistry will enable graduate students, post-docs, and other scientists with comparable levels of experience and education to present and discuss the issues faced in materials discovery, optimization of structure or composition, and improvement of the desired properties. By offering a seminar that promotes the sharing of unpublished work, both in poster and oral presentation form, discussions amongst fellow scientists in the field of solid state chemistry will lead to the exchange of ideas concerning the process leading to the discovery of new materials.

This seminar focusing on young scientists will promote the sharing of unpublished research, as well as give an opportunity for students and post-docs to present their research via posters and oral presentations. A career panel, including representatives from industry, national laboratories, and academia will take place during the two day meeting.