Water: Driving Life, Medicine, Energy and Environment

“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water” - Wystan Hugh Auden

What is so special about water that it has its own biennial Gordon Research Conference (GRC) since 1970? The "molecular sociology" of water, its condensed phase. The attraction of water molecules continually forms interacting three-dimensional networks within the briefest of time spans at different thermodynamic conditions. The essential properties of liquid water reduce to three: a large number of hydrogen bonds, their local tetrahedral symmetry and their short lifetime. Other liquids might have some of those special characteristics, but only water has them all. Might this be enough to make water especially fit for life? The hunt for the correct answer still goes on. This meeting might get us closer to it. Water remains an intriguing liquid that continues to excite interest of scientists in many disciplines. We will follow the basic motto: "water, water everywhere…" and we will apply the knowledge to a broad range of basic problems and applications, from biology and medicine, to materials by design, to energy storage and environment. To understand these processes we need to understand how water molecules interact with solutes and surfaces in question. We know now that interfacial water is integral to many physical and chemical systems and crucial for biological function. Thus, understanding the basic mechanisms involved in hydration processes in biology, nanotechnology and molecular engineering this meeting will emphasize will take us a step closer to creating new biomimetic materials, harvesting energy from nature and storing energy.

The plan is to have an exciting meeting in terms of forward-looking scientific program, speakers who will present cutting edge, and their latest unpublished work, and whose engaging talks will lead to thought-provoking discussions. We will identify future challenges in a unique, informal and interactive format with daily free afternoons and poster sessions. Four best posters given by students and postdocs will be selected for short talks during the meeting, and presented in a "Young Investigator Presentations" session. Short talks for the "Late-Breaking Topics" will be selected from submitted abstracts three months before the meeting. Please submit your abstract by March 22, 2018. The meeting will be preceded by a Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) whose focus complements beautifully the GRC one.