12^th International Conference on Frontiers of Polymers and Advanced Materials (ICFPAM 2013)

The 12^th International Conference on Frontiers of Polymers and Advanced Materials was held at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, from 8 to 13 December 2013. The conference was attended by over 500 participants from over 40 countries. The scientific program included 5 plenary lectures (D. Shechtman, J. M. J. Fréchet, P. S. Weiss, P. N. Prasad, and T. Aida), 13 keynotes, over 120 invited talks, and over 200 posters presented in two poster sessions. The conference addressed all major topics of current and prospective interest in polymer science and advanced materials and technologies, covering the following main themes:

• From synthesis to advanced materials

• Nano-scale and nano-structured materials and devices

• Biomaterials and biopolymers

• Organic-based photonics and electronics materials

• Composites and hybrid materials

The conference received support from IUPAC, the University of Auckland, the Office of Naval Research Global, the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, the University of Victoria Wellington, New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, New Zealand Bionanotechnology Network, Kolon Industries, Millennium Plastics, and LG Chem, and their support is gratefully acknowledged.

The subjects of the four papers in this issue are representative of the symposia at the conference: light-triggered vesicle formation (Kinbara et al.); myoblast differentiation on growth factor-immobilized polycaprolactone microparticles (Lee et al.); structure–activity relationships of guanylated antimicrobial polymethacrylates (Locock et al.); and thienothiophene-benzotriazole based semi-crystalline linear copolymers for organic field effect transistors (Woo et al.).

International Committee: F. Kajzar (France and Romania); K.-S. Lee (South Korea); P. N. Prasad (USA); R. Kozlowski (Poland); I. Rau (Romania); A. Whittaker (Australia); J. G. Grote (USA); F. Charra (France); C. Andraud (France); W. Focke (South Africa); G. Gonzalez (Chile); A. Graja (Poland); C. Y. C. Lee (USA); A. Meghea (Romania); J. Niziol (Poland); J. Pielichowski (Poland); J. Sworakowski (Poland); J. Ulanski (Poland); M. I. Aranguren (Argentina); G. Bidan (France); J.-I. Jin (South Korea); T. Kaino (Japan); I. C. Khoo (USA); M. Mah (USA); T. Ogawa (Mexico); O. Oliveira (Brazil); A. Pawlicka (Brazil); K. Pielichowski (Poland); M. Samoc (Australia); B. Sahraoui (France).