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Welcome to the 95th Colloid and Surface Science symposium (CSSS) and the experience of a virtual environment for exchange of ideas.

The Colloid and Surface Science Symposium (CSSS) got its start in 1923, with the first symposium built around the work of Theodor Svedberg, Nobel laureate recognized for his research on colloids and proteins using the ultracentrifuge. The 1923 colloid symposium, held outside the organizational framework of ACS, gave the impetus for ACS to create the Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry (COLL) in 1926. Following the original meeting in 1923, the summer colloid symposium has continued to be organized every year except during the war years of 1943-45.  This unique summer meeting, now sponsored by COLL, brings together interdisciplinary researchers in academia, government and industry with a common interest in key topical areas including  emulsions, foams and dispersions, wetting and adhesion, surface forces, self and directed assembly at the molecular and colloidal scale, surface science and catalysis, nanoparticles, complex fluids, interfacial physics and chemistry, soft-matter science, biology-material interface, environmental and energy applications and nanomedicine.

The 95th CSSS will make its mark as a full-fledged virtual symposium resembling the previous in-person meetings, benefiting from the virtual symposium for the 94th CSSS organized by Rice University at the early stage of the COVID pandemic.  The 95th CSSS will highlight advances in colloid and surface science and its intersections with diverse scientific and technological domains through 16 thematic technical symposia, a fundamental research/general papers symposium and a poster symposium. The 95th CSSS will feature two plenary lectures, by Prof. Maria Santore from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Prof. Catherine Murphy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  There will be two plenary lectures by the winners of the 2020 and 2021 Unilever Award given in recognition of fundamental work in colloid or surfactant science carried out in North America by researchers in the early stages of their careers. There will also be two plenary lectures given by the winners of the 2020 and 2021 Victor K. LaMer Award given for the outstanding Ph.D. thesis accepted by a US or Canadian university during the three-year period prior to the award year.  There will be keynote lectures in all of the thematic symposia and LaMer Award finalists will also present LaMer Keynote lectures within multiple technical symposia. There will also be a virtual exhibition highlighting advances in instrumental techniques in colloid and surface science.

Student focused activities are an important part of this meeting.  The 95th CSSS will feature awards for best graduate student oral presentations, sponsored by the ACS journal Langmuir and the ACS Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry. These awards aim to recognize excellence in research as manifested in oral presentations.  A panel of judges will be selecting ten graduate student presenters for the special symposium “Langmuir Graduate Student Awards Session”.  Student posters will also be eligible for best poster award sponsored by the ACS journal Langmuir.

We invite you to meet with old friends and make new friends in the virtual environment and enjoy a fruitful conference.

 

Download 95th CSSS (14-16 June 2021) Program Book