Conference: 2025 Complex Active and Adaptive Material Systems GRC

Non-technical Description: This award funds the 2025 Complex Active and Adaptive Material Systems Gordon Research Conference (GRC) to be held on January 26 – 31, 2025, in Ventura, CA (USA). The GRC will bring together scientists from diverse fields to explore how the next generation of materials might "sense," "assess," and "respond" to their surroundings.

Inspired by living organisms, the goal is to create materials that can adapt and change in real time. The event will focus on new ways materials can assemble themselves, imitate natural systems, process information, and be controlled through complex feedback mechanisms. Participants will discuss biological systems with these properties and consider synthetic systems, including self-assembling polymers, soft robots, and materials that combine chemical or mechanical oscillations.

The conference aims to uncover shared principles and accelerate progress in creating adaptable materials by connecting researchers from different areas. The meeting will give opportunities to students and early-career scientists to work closely with leaders in the field.

Technical Description: The 2025 Complex Active and Adaptive Material Systems Gordon Research Conference will unite multidisciplinary researchers to advance the understanding of dynamic sense-assess-response feedback loops in active, adaptive, and autonomous material systems. Key topics include embedding feedback mechanisms for advanced functionality, oscillatory multiphysics coupling, multiscale collective behavior, and structural/physical embodiment of information processing.

Biological systems will serve as inspiration for achieving intrinsically non-equilibrium material systems. Discussions will explore synthetic systems like chemo-mechanical coupling, polymer self-assembly, colloidal systems, and soft robotics, identifying shared design principles for feedback-driven materials. The event aligns with the NSF DMREF mission to mentor the next generation of materials researchers by fostering cross-disciplinary collaborations and advancing theory, simulation, and experimental techniques.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.