Four short-courses or tutorials will be held on Sunday November 5th prior to ICOTOM:

• A Guide to Practical Crystallography and its Applications to Materials Textures
• Practical Tutorial on MTEX
• Practical Tutorial on Dream.3d
• Texture Analysis from Diffraction Data using MAUD Application Examples and Hands-on Tutorial

• Chemical surface reactions
• Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs)
• Langmuir and Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films
• Preparation and properties of supported membranes
• Chemically modified electrodes
• Enzyme modified electrodes and polymer modified electrodes
• Novel techniques and instrumentation for examining surfaces
• Recognition signal transduction and processing
• Detection techniques and protocols
• Miniaturization of analytical systems and the nanotechnology use
  

Key Topics and Focus of the Conference

The key topics shall be

• the physical and chemical control of spin-architectures at surfaces and interfaces,
• the experimental investigation of spin properties e.g. via local probe and spatially averaging experiments (X-ray magnetic circular dichroism, spin polarized photoemission techniques, spin-resolved scanning tunneling spectroscopy/ microscopy)
• the ab-initio calculation of the spintronic behavior at real and model interfaces, and
• the characterization of exploratory spintronic devices on the basis of single or few atoms or molecules.

SCOPE - Topics included but not limited to:

• Theory, First principle calculations, phase transitions and critical phenomenon;
• Growth of crystals, processing of materials & characterization and structure: property relationships, thin films;
• Domains and boundaries; surfaces and interfaces, imperfections, controlling and exploiting topological defects;
• Dielectric, piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties;
• Ferroelectric polymers, liquid crystals, composites;
• Incommensurate and modulated structures;
• Probing the nanoscale ferroelectric behavior and size effects;
• Order-disorder phenomenon, ferroelectric relaxors;
• Ferroics, bio-ferroics, multiferroics, bio-multiferroics, cross-coupled and secondary ferroics;
• Raman, IR, sub-millimeter, THz, microwave spectroscopy;
• Ferroelectric-semiconductor integration;
• Novelty of perovskites, single phase ferroics, mixed oxides for energy harvesting and superconductor oxides;
• Simulation, modeling and design of novel ferroics and meta-electronic materials;
• Ferroelectrics by design -- beyond serendipity
• Novel applications and device concepts using various ferroics, multiferroics for the applications in bio-components, multifunctional device concepts

Topical Sessions

The following parallel sessions will be held in the afternoons:

• Applied Physics and Plasma Physics
• Astronomy und Astrophysics **
• Atomic Physics and Quantum Photonics
• Biophysics, Medical Physics and Soft Matter
• Condensed Matter Physics (KOND) (incl. NESY)
• Correlated-Electron Physics in Transition-Metal Oxides *
• Earth, Atmosphere and Environmental Physics
• Emergent phenomena in novel low-dimensional materials *
• History of Physics
• Magnetism and Spintronics at the Nanoscale
• Nuclear, Particle- & Astrophysics (TASK-FAKT)
• Physics in Startups
• Scientific Opportunities with SwissFEL
• Surfaces, Interfaces and Thin Films
• Theoretical Physics

The Nexus of Bio-, Nano-, Architecture, and Mechanics of Interfaces

Fundamentals of Chemical and Physical Change at Surfaces and Interfaces

Topics of interest

• Prediction/simulation of crystal structure and properties of advanced ceramics
• Characterization and modeling of surfaces, interfaces and grain boundaries at multiple scales in ceramics
• Modeling and simulation of grain growth and microstructure evolution in ceramics
• Virtual material design for new innovative materials
• Novel simulation methods for ceramic processing: shaping and sintering
• Modeling and simulation for ceramic composite manufacturing
• Modeling and simulation for CMCs, UHTCs, and UHTCMCs
• Mathematical models of electrical and magnetic properties in ceramics
• Mathematical model of optical and physical properties in ceramics
• Materials design for extreme environments
• Simulation/characterization of mechanical and tribological behavior
• Simulation/characterization of material behavior at high-temperatures
• Improvement performance through prediction and modelling in refractories and clay-based ceramics
• New ceramics for renewable energy applications

Fundamentals, Applications, and Analytical Methods

Molecular frontiers & global challenges

Programme themes

• Chemistry in the life sciences
• Materials, interfaces and devices
• Catalysis (including industry)
• Energy, environment and sustainability
• Inorganic chemistry advances
• Organic chemistry advances
• Physical and analytical chemistry advances

Colloids 2017 Themes

1. Wetting | Chair: Alex Routh
2. Nanoparticles | Chair: Prof Nguyen T.K Thanh, Dr Tapas Sen
3. Foams/Bubbles/Emulsions and microemulsions | Chair: Alison Paul
4. Colloidal suspensions | Chair: Jeroen van Duijneveldt
5. Programmable self-assembly | Chairs: Dwaipayan Chakrabarti and Stefano Sacanna
6. Biocolloids and Biointerfaces | Chair: Chris Blanford, Vitaliy Khutoryanskiy
7. Characterisation of Formulated Products | Chair: Peter Dowding
8. Colloidal Physics | Chair: Cecile Dreiss
9. Formulation Science and Engineering | Chair: Seung Lee