The attendees at the workshop enthusiastically endorsed the ICAM prospectus; "Toward
an Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter (ICAM)" described in the call for the
workshop. There was strong support for the rapid development of ICAM, coupled with a very
real commitment to active
participation in such an Institute.
The goal of ICAM is to be highly interdisciplinary and to create a forum in which ideas,
firmly rooted in innovative new materials research, can turn into theories which, if
right, will change the course of history of chemistry, biology, materials science, or
physics. To accomplish this goal, the forum will build on excellence in creating new
materials and carrying out innovative experimental programs that are coupled to theory to
develop an understanding of complexity in matter. The forum will also be a significant
educational enterprise focused on building bridges and common languages between the hard,
soft, and biomaterial communities. It will be strongly coupled to the present world wide
explosive developments in new complex materials and phenomena and be a driver for their
continued development in the new millennium.
ICAM is to be an innovative University/Laboratory partnership designed to implement this
creative risk-taking research and scientific training. There was a clear consensus that in
view of its research and facility strengths and initiating role in complex adaptive
matter, Los Alamos provides a natural base for ICAM.
A nominating committee, appointed during the workshop, was charged with forming a
structure to establish ICAM. This committee has proposed the formation of an interim Board
of Trustees and an interim Science Steering Committee that are charged with organizing
ICAM. Nominated members are given in this workshop summary report. The goal is to have
these committees in place by late January 1999.
Many founding workshops, described in the summary report, were proposed. These workshops
will explore new concepts and ideas, bring diverse groups and communities together, and
focus on work-in-progress, rather than the presentation of past research results. Three
integrative workshops that embody many of the concepts presented at the workshop are:
1.New Materials for the New Millennium.
2.Nearly ordered States in Complex Adaptive Matter.
3.Adaptive Atoms: Mixed Valence Bridging Hard-condensed
Matter and Biological and Environmental Systems.