The inaugural Meso-Bio-Nano Science Forum will take place from 31 August to 4 September 2026 in Oldenburg, Germany. The event is organized jointly by the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (Oldenburg, Germany) and the MBN Research Center (Frankfurt am Main, Germany).
Meso-Bio-Nano (MBN) Science is an interdisciplinary research area that studies the structure formation and dynamics of animate and inanimate matter at the nano- and mesoscales up to the macroscales. Important efforts to deepen the molecular-level understanding of different forms of condensed matter and their dynamical behaviour concern the origin, nature, and evolution of different complex molecular systems, as well as the emergence of new features, properties, processes, and functions associated with the systems as they increase in size and complexity. Research in this area brings together many traditional topics and methods in theoretical physics and chemistry with problems in life sciences and materials research under a common theme. The range of open and challenging scientific problems in this area is very broad. The list of challenging topics in this area is growing rapidly, facilitating the development of relevant theoretical and computational methods.
MBN Science has many links to atomic and molecular physics. In particular, it involves theoretical and computational methods, such as many-body theory, density functional theory, and collision theory, as well as many algorithms that were originally developed for simulating atomic and molecular properties and were later generalised to larger-scale simulations. Similarly, experimental methods, which have shifted more and more from gas-phase experiments involving single atoms and simple molecules to experiments on more sophisticated molecular and condensed matter systems, while maintaining atomic or, at least, nanoscopic resolution.
The theoretical and computational developments in MBN Science are of great importance to the entire research community, as highlighted in the recent Roadmap paper. These developments lead to new ideas and predictions, revealing new phenomena, and opening up new research horizons. This can be seen from the development of the field over the past decades, where most of the projects and initiatives described above have been generated and coordinated by the team of the MBN Research Center, although most of the partner teams in these European projects were experimental.
The MBN Research Center conducts an extensive programme of cutting-edge research. This is largely based on the use of the Center's own state-of-the-art, universal, and powerful software packages, MBN Explorer and MBN Studio, which are designed for advanced scientific research and computational modelling of the molecular structure and dynamics of complex MBN systems.
The MBN Research Center team has long been the main driving force behind the organisation of the conference series "International Symposia on Atomic Cluster Collisions (ISACC)" and "Dynamics of Systems on the Nanoscale (DySoN)".
The ISACC conference series was launched in 2003, and twelve ISACC conferences have been held to date. Initially, ISACC focused mainly on the dynamics of atomic clusters, particularly in atomic cluster collisions. Since then, however, its scope has significantly broadened to encompass the dynamics of nanosystems, biomolecules and macromolecules, with a particular focus on the similarities between clustering phenomena in various fields of physics, chemistry, and biology. During the ISACC conferences, it became clear that there was a need for an interdisciplinary conference covering a wide range of topics related to the dynamics of nanoscale systems. As a result, the DySoN conference series was launched in 2010, and eight DySoN conferences have been held so far.
However, it has become increasingly apparent that the MBN Science area is expanding beyond the scope of the well-established DySoN and ISACC conference series. Therefore, it has been decided that, from 2026 onwards, the MBN Science Forum will encompass the entire relevant research area, including the following topics:
- Structure and dynamics of atomic and molecular clusters, and nanoparticles
- Structure and dynamics of biomolecular systems
- Clustering, self-organization, phase and morphological transitions on the nanoscale
- Nanostructured materials, surfaces and interfaces
- Reactivity and nanocatalysis
- Photon, electron and ion-induced collisions with molecular and cluster systems
- Fusion, fission, and fragmentation processes
- Radiation-induced chemistry
- Irradiation-driven transformations, damage and fabrication of MBN systems
- Propagation of particles through media
- Clusters and biomolecules in external fields: electric, magnetic, laser, etc.
- Cluster and biomolecular research with free-electron lasers
- Biomedical and technological applications of radiation
- Related technologies: novel light sources, controlled nanofabrication, functionalized materials, etc.