Self-assembly and hierarchical structure formation spanning multiple length scales is a common property of biological materials. Also advanced enginee-ring materials exhibit a complex hierarchical microstructure from molecular to macroscopic length scales.
The underlying physics and chemistry linking structure formation processes across multiple length scales is largely unexplored. Often small changes on the molecular length scale cause dramatic effects on much larger length scales, as examples from biology show.
Further topics covered by the conference include self-healing and self-adaptive materials, biomaterials, multi-block copolymers forming spatially complex structures, the dynamics of structure formation and non-equilibrium phenomena, morphological description and properties of hierarchically structured materials.
The conference will bring together experts from different fields of polymer science and provide a forum for discussion of common physical principles causing hierarchical structure formation in polymeric materials.

Topics:
Structure formation mechanisms and self-assembly
Physical properties and biological function
Medical and bioengineering applications
Structure and morphology characterization