The purpose of this two day workshop is to bring together, in a pleasant and productive setting, a multidisciplinary group of scientists working on carbides, nitrides, and related materials to find common ground and educate each other.

Carbides and nitrides, as ceramics, semiconductors, glasses and hard materials, and as possible components in the interior of the Earth and other planets, find increasing attention in geoscience, materials science, and solid state chemistry. The incorporation of small to moderate amounts of carbon and nitrogen into oxygen-containing structures, both as trace to minor substitutions in common oxide and silicates as well as in the formation of new oxycarbide and oxynitride phases, is also a growing field of study and application. In spite of the importance of the field and overlap of their interests, the diverse communities who work on these materials do not communicate well with each other, especially across the materials science - geoscience frontier. It is time for a workshop which brings these communities together, with the goal of stimulating long-term interaction and of defining the most promising and overarching directions of future research. Though the geoscience community is taking the lead in organizing this workshop, our goal is increased and continuing interaction with the other communities, now and in the future.

Major goals are to acquaint geoscientists with the work being done in the materials community and to educate the materials community in the fascinating phenomena and problems encountered in our and other planets. The workshop will give students and postdocs a first-hand experience of nascent frontier research across borders of disciplines. We emphasize the prominent role of young researchers in the program; the workshop aims to have a mix of speakers including established leaders in their fields and younger scientist pursuing novel directions. Our goal is not so much a review of established research as it is to stimulate new, interdisciplinary science.

Topics Include:

- Crystal chemistry, physics and material science of carbides and nitrides with light elements
- Carbon and nitrogen in the Earth’s interior
- Carbides and nitrides of high-Z elements
- Petrology of carbon and nitrogen rich planetary environments
- Advances in experimental and theoretical approaches: Synthesis, properties, diagnostics

Keynote Speakers Include:

Yury Gogotsi
Larissa Dobrzhinetskaya
Emanuel Ionescu
Burkhard Militzer
Adrian Jones
Andreas Zerr

Registration opens January 15th. Some level of financial aid, especially for students and postdocs, may be available. Check the appropriate box on the registration form to indicate interest in financial aid.

The workshop is organized by:

Alexandra Navrotsky, University of California Davis
Anat Shahar, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Oliver Tschauner, University of Nevada Las Vegas
Andreas Zerr, Centre National de Recherche et Sciences, France

For further workshop information and registration visit: http://tinyurl.com/Carbide-Workshop

For workshop questions contact Alexandra Navrotsky (anavrotsky@ucdavis.edu)

For logistics and registration questions contact Farm Saechao (fmsaechao@ucdavis.edu) or Erica Orcutt (navea@ucdavis.edu)