Beginning with the steam engines that spurred the Industrial Revolution, the past few centuries of technological progress have been distinguished by our ability to design and refine ever more sophisticated machines.

Molecular motors are nanoscale systems that carry out specific tasks of mechanical work, microscopic assembly, or information processing. Alongside rapid progress revealing the details of biomolecular machines such as kinesin and myosin, laboratories around the world have begun piecing together the components of artificial machines -- molecular rotors, gears, and axles, single-molecule "walkers", and the like. The task of designing these machines is daunting: too small to see with the naked eye, they operate in a noisy environment where macroscopic intuition is not always a reliable guide. New design principles are needed to achieve control of these nanoscale machines.

This conference will provide a forum for exchanging ideas across various disciplines on the topic of molecular motors. It will bring together physicists, chemists and biologists to present their perspectives on the current state of the field and to develop strategies for future research. Topics to be covered include:

• Theory and experiments uncovering the structure of molecular motors and the principles of their operations
• Approaches for building artificial or artificially modified biological molecular motors and their applications in nanotechnology.
• Physics of molecular motor operations. Ratchet systems and mesoscopic thermodynamics of controlled nano-mechanical motion.

The organizers emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of this field. The meeting will highlight key scientific and technological challenges that need to be addressed to achieve control of mechanical motion at nanoscales.