Conference: 2026 Solid State Chemistry GRC and GRS

PART 1: NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY

The 2026 Solid State Chemistry Gordon Research Conference (GRC) will be held July 26-31, 2026, at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, NH. An affiliated Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) will take place July 25-26, 2026, at the same venue. Solid state chemistry plays an essential role in the design and discovery of new functional materials to meet ever-growing societal demands for smaller, faster, and safer technologies. Research results presented at this conference will include synthesis and invention of new materials as well as studies that examine the structures of solids in great detail, relating key structural features to the materials' properties and functions. Presentations will address applications in technologies such as batteries, quantum computing, efficient lighting, and radiation sensing and security. The GRC will feature 26 oral presentations and two poster sessions, while the GRS will include 10 invited talks from graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, two poster sessions, and a career panel with experts from academia, national labs, and industry. Education and training of the future research workforce is an emphasis in the planning of this conference. The GRC will provide opportunities for networking and mentorship among researchers of varying career stages and work sectors, including research universities, primarily undergraduate institutions, national laboratories, and industry. This award, supported by the Solid State and Materials Program within the Division of Materials Research, will support the participation of U.S. early career scientists, including graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.

PART 2: TECHNICAL SUMMARY

The 2026 Solid State Chemistry GRC and accompanying GRS will focus on fundamental research ranging from materials synthesis to advanced characterization and development toward potential applications. One theme will be materials discovery, encompassing strategic exploratory solid state synthesis as well as efforts enabled by machine learning and computation. A second thread will be advanced characterization, which increasingly makes it possible to determine the local structures, disorder, and dynamics that can be critical to a material's function. Oral and poster presentations will feature a broad range of materials, including functional oxides and chalcogenides, mixed-anion compounds, low-dimensional materials, high-entropy alloys, hybrid materials, magnets and quantum materials, thermoelectrics, and materials at the interface of crystallinity and disorder. This wide coverage will enable discussion of applications in areas such as electrochemical energy storage, quantum computing, and advanced optics. The accompanying GRS will highlight novel synthetic techniques, computational tools for materials discovery, and materials for energy storage. Both parts of the conference will welcome participants from fields including chemistry, physics, and materials engineering working from both experimental and computational perspectives. The conference will also foster networking and mentorship among researchers of varying career stages. This award, supported by the Solid State and Materials Program within the Division of Materials Research, will support the participation of U.S. early career scientists, including graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Award Number: 2538208
Principal Investigator: Catherine Oertel
Funds Obligated: $30,000
State: RI