Forging a Sustainable Additive Manufacturing Ecosystem with Tailored Reactivity, Rheology, and Resolution

Next-generation soft materials for next-generation additive manufacturing (AM, commonly termed 3D printing) modalities demand an unprecedented convergence of disciplines with a keen understanding of reactivity, rheology, and resolution (the 3Rs). This molecules to manufacturing approach will continue to catalyze innovation with impact on countless rapidly emerging technologies in aerospace, transportation, medicine, carbon capture, membranes, energy generation and storage, and beyond. Furthermore, a lens of sustainability is paramount to ensure circularity and end-of-life (EOL) considerations for next generation materials and devices. This conference focuses on design across the continuum of innovation, and the latest directions demand the integration of digital design, multiscale simulations, artificial intelligence and machine learning, multimodality manufacturing methods, materials synthesis, multi-material printing, composites, and performance engineering. AM invites a diverse cadre of researchers from sustainability scientists and manufacturing engineers to entrepreneurs, designers, artists, and educators with a broad range of materials requirements from thermosets, vitrimers, and thermoplastics to hydrogels, organogels, and composites. This conference assembles diverse communities of researchers from academia, industry, and national laboratories to tackle grand challenges of our times from human health to earth health. Interdisciplinary collaboration will catalyze discovery and translational success, and this conference welcomes lively discussion and diverse thinking for circular thinking at all levels. (https://www.grc.org/additive-manufacturing-of-soft-materials-conference/2024/)