FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 10, 2000

Contacts: Linda Joy
(301) 975-4403

MA 2000-06

Media Advisory

Combinatorial Methods for Speeding Chemical and Materials Discoveries Will Be Focus of NIST Workshop, May 31-June 1  
 

Event: Combinatorial Materials Science: A National Dialogue

Reporters are invited to cover the only workshop designed as a dialogue on how industry, academic and government scientists can forge the future of chemical and materials science through combinatorial methods.

Combinatorial methodology is a set of tools and techniques the chemical and materials science communities will use in the future to accelerate discovery and development of new materials to meet 21st century needs. Combinatorial methods, which use a large number of carefully designed, multidimensional experiments that may be performed rapidly or in parallel on a miniaturized scale with automated instrumentation, have revolutionized the R&D process in drug discovery. Most major chemical companies and several start-up companies have initiated programs within the past two years to find ways to accelerate the discovery of advanced materials (catalysts, electronic and optical materials, polymers, metal alloys and ceramics) and process optimization.

Speakers will include industry leaders from Lucent Technology, CuraGen Corp., General Electric, Illumina Inc. and MicroFab Inc. Researchers from NIST, Sandia National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology are scheduled to speak.

The workshop will take place May 31 to June 1 in the Green Auditorium of the NIST Administration Building, Gaithersburg, Md. The program begins at 10 a.m. on May 31 and at 8:30 a.m. on June 1. An agenda is available on the workshop web page: www.nist.gov/combi.

Sponsors: The National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Army Research Office.

Reporters planning to cover the workshop should contact Linda Joy at (301) 975-4403 or linda.joy@nist.gov.