Computational Studies, Nanotechnology, and Solution Thermodynamics of Polymer Systems

This text is the published version of many ofthe talks presented at two symposiums held as part of the Southeast Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society (SERMACS) in Knoxville, TN in October, 1999. The Symposiums, entitled Solution Thermodynamics of Polymers and Computational Polymer Science and Nanotechnology, provided outlets to present and discuss problems of current interest to polymer scientists. It was, thus, decided to publish both proceedings in a single volume. The first part of this collection contains printed versions of six of the ten talks presented at the Symposium on Solution Thermodynamics of Polymers organized by Yuri B. Melnichenko and W. Alexander Van Hook. The two sessions, further described below, stimulated interesting and provocative discussions. Although not every author chose to contribute to the proceedings volume, the papers that are included faithfully represent the scope and quality of the symposium. The remaining two sections are based on the symposium on Computational Polymer Science and Nanotechnology organized by Mark D. Dadmun, Bobby G. Sumpter, and Don W. Noid. A diverse and distinguished group of polymer and materials scientists, biochemists, chemists and physicists met to discuss recent research in the broad field of computational polymer science and nanotechnology. The two-day oral session was also complemented by a number of poster presentations. The first article of this section is on the important subject of polymer blends. M. D.