Understanding and Harnessing Complexity

Complex mixtures of molecules can have properties not observed in pure systems. For example, self-replication and adaptive behaviors require the interplay of reaction networks. The interaction of multiple components can also enhance a system's robustness. The Gordon Research Conference on Systems Chemistry is devoted to understanding the unique functions and phenomena that can emerge in complex molecular mixtures and to developing tools to describe, analyze and harness them. The field bridges the challenges of chemistry involving the transformation of molecular and material structure and the information and energy flow that encompasses these transformations and ideas from systems science, complexity, and nonlinear dynamics. The systems chemistry community brings together many fields, including supramolecular chemistry, non-equilibrium chemistry, prebiotic chemistry, synthetic biology, and catalysis, and benefits from tools and ideas from biology, soft condensed matter physics, and control theory. It is now developing design rules for the structure of molecular networks and principles and chemical motifs for chemical systems and identifying and rigorously characterizing behaviors that arise in chemical systems. These advances are making it possible to elucidate precisely how spatial organization and temporal dynamics can emerge. The conference will consider how the driving advancements in this area could help us understand complexity in biological, prebiotic, and abiotic natural systems at the molecular scale and address challenges in chemical synthesis, biotechnology, and sustainability.