Conference: 2025 Crystal Growth and Assembly Gordon Research Conference and Gordon Research Seminar

PART 1: NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY The 2025 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Crystal Growth and Assembly: Mechanistic Understanding of the Growth and Assembly of Ordered Materials, and the 2025 Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on Crystal Growth and Assembly are being held at Southern New Hampshire University on June 22-27 and June 21-22, 2025, respectively. Our society continuously benefits from the development of a wide range of advanced materials to solve technological challenges in applications ranging from catalysts, solar cells, and flexible electronics to new therapeutics for human diseases such as malaria. Such materials are developed by scientists with various backgrounds, including chemistry, physics, materials science, and engineering. Novel materials are often developed at the boundaries of these disciplines, and the aim of the Gordon Research Conference on Crystal Growth & Assembly is to bring together leading scientists from these different backgrounds to stimulate cross-fertilization. To promote broader impacts, the format of the meeting emphasizes active participation of young scientists, i.e., students and post-docs, to educate a new generation of researchers that will have to meet future materials challenges in a changing world where (some) resources become increasingly scarce. NSF's Solid State and Materials Chemistry Program in the Division of Materials Research support stipends for registration fees and/or travel support for some early-career participants at this conference because of its relevance to their programmatic scope. PART 2: TECHNICAL SUMMARY The Crystal Growth and Assembly Gordon Research Conference and Seminar is dedicated to the knowledge and understanding of the fundamental atomic and nanoscale chemistry and physics that are central to the nucleation and growth of crystals, as well as their assembly into ordered materials for a wide array of technologies. Such knowledge is needed to develop advanced materials for a wide range of applications. The 2025 conference has a particular focus on understanding and predicting dynamics and mechanisms of crystal nucleation and growth, formation of nano and complex hierarchical structures, crystal growth under external fields, and bioinspired assembly. This conference, with support from NSF's Solid State and Materials Chemistry Program in the Division of Materials Research, gathers leading scientists representing the major areas in crystallization and assembly, and brings them into contact with each other and, more importantly, with the next generation of researchers to promote broader outreach within the crystal growth community. With respect to this larger goal, the meeting seeks to provide a common interdisciplinary education for students; to raise the comfort-level of our student/postdoc participants; and, through these efforts, to develop a tightly woven community held together by a common interest in the principles of materials assembly. The accompanying Gordon Research Seminar, which is dedicated to and organized by graduate students and post-doctoral researchers, aids in the active participation of this new generation of scientists. 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.