Polymers and light are at the heart of modern science and technologies. The advantageous properties of both biological and synthetic polymers can be custom-designed and -tuned by controlling their chemical structure and -- often hierarchical -- supramolecular organization, in order to obtain functional systems capable of performing complex tasks. Light, on the other hand, provides additional means to fabricate and analyze polymeric systems, but also to control their function. For example, nature taught us how sunlight can be harvested and converted into electrical energy using organic photovoltaic systems. On the other hand electrical energy can be efficiently converted back into light in polymer-based light-emitting diodes.

“Polydays 2012: Polymers and Light” aims to highlight the exciting science currently going on at the interface of polymers and light. The Polydays series is organized biannually by the Berlin-Brandenburg Association of Polymer Science (BVP) and dedicated to modern topics of polymer research. This year‘s conference will take place from September 30 to October2, 2012 at the Campus Adlershof of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Among the speakers are outstanding international researchers including T. Aida (Tokyo), C.J. Barrett (Montreal), P. Fratzl (Potsdam), J.M.J. Frechét (Thuwal, Saudi Arabia), M. Havenith (Bochum), G.D. Scholes (Toronto), and C.G. Willson (Austin). 

Find out more at www.polydays.de

CONTACT:

Prof. Stefan Hecht, PhD
IRIS Adlershof und Institut für Chemie
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
phone +49 (0)30 2093-7365
mail: sh@chemie.hu-berlin.de

Prof. Dr. Jürgen P. Rabe
IRIS Adlershof und Institut für Physik
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
phone: +49 (0)30 2093-7788
mail: rabe@physik.hu-berlin.de