Symposium
Editor: A. A. Darinskii
Wiley-VCH, 2006
>
Content
doi:10.1002/masy.200690078
Preface
The
5th International
Symposium 'Molecular Mobility and Order in Polymer Systems'
sponsored by IUPAC, was held at the Scientists House (the
former Great Duke Vladimir's Palace) in Saint Petersburg,
June 20-24, 2005. The symposium was organized by the Department
of Chemistry and Material Science of the Russian Academy
of Sciences, the Polymer Council of the Russian Academy
of Sciences and the Institute of Macromolecular Compounds
of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The meeting was supported
by the Russian Foundation of Basic Research and the St.
Petersburg Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The
symposium has continued the series of St. Petersburg meetings
on macromolecules. The first meeting was held in October
1994.These meetings are the most important international
gathering of polymer scientists in Russia. They provide
a venue where young scientists and more experienced researchers
have the opportunity for close and friendly contacts with
the leading specialists in the various domains of polymer
science. The symposium involved 21 plenary lectures, 60
contributed oral presentations, and more than 210 posters
from 29 countries of Europe, Asia and America. Main attention
was paid to problems of the structure and dynamics of
polymer systems which combine the order and the pronounced
molecular mobility, i.e., systems with so-called 'soft'
order. Many such systems arise in the process of self-organization
at some conditions and can change their structure even
at small changes of these conditions. Such systems are
in the focus of modern polymer science, explaining the
large interest in the symposium from both Russian and
foreign scientists. The traditionally high level of participants
working in the fields of theoretical physics and computer
modeling of polymers should be mentioned. Many studies
presented at the symposium were made in collaboration
between Russian and Western researchers in the frame of
international scientific projects and grants. Special
attention was paid to attract young scientists, and more
than 50 students presented their results at poster sessions.
The
Symposium program covered six broad topics:
_ Macromolecules in solutions, melts and networks oriented
and stretched in strong external fields
_ Liquid crystalline polymers
_ Copolymers and polymer blends
_ Polymer layers and micelles
_ Polymer complexes and membranes
_ Polymer networks of different topologies, branched and
star polymers, dendrimers
This
issue presents a selection of the contributions (some
plenary lectures and selected oral/poster presentations).
The papers are divided into three groups: papers based
on experimental data, theoretical works and results of
computer simulations.
Of
course this issue covers only a small part of the works
presented at the Symposium. The number of participants
at the St. Petersburg Symposia is continuously increasing,
and it is our intention to keep this tradition and to
organize the 6th St. Petersburg Symposium in the future.
We believe that it will attract at least as much interest
of the scientific polymer community as the present one.
Anatoly
A.Darinskii