The 2012 Gordon Research Conference on Polymer Physics will feature outstanding lectures and discussions in this critical interdisciplinary field, which impacts every industrial sector from electronics to transportation to medicine to textiles to energy. This international meeting will be designed both to present exciting progress in well-established research areas, and to introduce the community to important emerging topics in the areas of energy and biological applications.

The conference will feature 22 invited lectures, with the opening 10 minutes designed for a general polymer physics audience. The technical content of the 2012 meeting will comprise topics of strong current and enduring interest across polymer physics, with particular focus in areas including:

• Conducting polymers for energy applications
• Polymers at the interface with biological systems
• Polymeric surfactants for functional encapsulation
• Semi-crystalline polymers: science of materials design
• Self-assembly strategies from lab and nature
• Entangled rheology and shear banding (is rheology finished?)

This meeting will take place immediately following the first annual Polymer Physics Gordon Research Seminar, which provides a great opportunity for students and post-docs to conduct a scientific conference. Attendees will share current research with their peers through oral and poster presentations; form new connections that may develop into future research collaborations; and discover the scope of research topics, methodologies, and career opportunities in the realm of polymer physics.