NIMS Conference 2014 and Announcement of NIMS Award 2014 :

The National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS; President: Sukekatsu Ushioda) hosts the “NIMS Conference” every year and invites the world’s leading researchers to discuss various issues and present their latest results in the fields of materials science, nanotechology, environment and energy. NIMS Conference 2014, which is the 11th such conference, will be held for three days from July 1 to 3, 2014, at the Tsukuba International Congress Center, under the theme of “Soft Materials Will Open the Way to the Society of the Future.” At this conference, the NIMS Award will be presented to those researchers who have achieved substantial progress in the field of materials science and technology. Sixty-eight candidates had been nominated from among the world’s top researchers in light of the theme of “soft materials.” A committee of impartial experts made the final choice and selected Professor Mitsuo Sawamoto at Kyoto University for his great contribution to the establishment of a precision polymerization method and a precision synthesis method of functional polymers, and Professor Krzysztof Matyjaszewski at Carnegie Mellon University for his success in the development of atom transfer radical polymerization. The award winners will give lectures after the presentation ceremony at the conference.

NIMS Conference 2014

This year’s conference has been arranged with the objective of offering a view of soft materials (e.g. polymers, colloids, biomolecules), which will contribute to the environment and energy field, and further invigorating research activities in this field.

Soft materials, the concept of which is the opposite of hard materials (e.g. metal and ceramics), have diverse sizes, shapes and functions. Rubber, plastics, crystals and gels are representative examples of soft materials. They can be described as key materials that support our present-day society, being used in clothes, automobiles, labels, seismic isolation rubber, contact lenses, optical fibers and organic EL devices. We can see the rapid expansion of the practical application of and demand in society for soft materials.

This year’s conference will deliver presentations to attendees with regard to basic science in organic and polymeric materials, discoveries of optical and electronic functions and practical application of these materials, interfaces for using them as biomaterials, and scientific contribution to the environment and energy field. NIMS hopes that this conference will be a place where attendees can exchange a wide range of information on the future of soft materials.