Symposium Draws 1,500 Scientists

The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science hosted a rare convergence of two international groups of colloid and surface scientists in late June.
 
The Colloid and Surface Science Conference, a joint session of the International Association of Colloid and Interface Scientists and the American Chemical Society, was attended by approximately 1,500 delegates from 40 countries.
 
“This was the Olympics in surface science, the largest conference event in colloids and surfaces because two major societies joined together to organize this conference in the great city of New York and in an academic environment of Columbia University,” said conference general chair Ponisseril Somasundaran (in photo at right), LaVon Duddleson Krumb Professor of Mineral Engineering at SEAS.
 
The six-day event brought together top researchers and technologists spanning the wide range of topics that come under the umbrella of colloid and surface science—behaviors in particulate systems and at interfaces, and the application of this knowledge to industrial technologies that include biomedicine, materials science, nanoengineering, water treatment, oil recovery, mineral processing, papermaking, and energy and environmental stewardship.
 
The event was sponsored by the International Association of Colloid and Interface Scientists, the American Chemical Society’s Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry, and the NSF Industry/University Center for Surfactants at Columbia University.