Thomas Bussey (University of Nevada – Las Vegas, USA), Kent Crippen (University of Florida, USA), Wendy Ho, Cindy Kern, Megan Litster, MaryKay Orgill, Sarah Wood (University of Nevada – Las Vegas, USA)
There are a variety of accepted definitions of self-assembly in the literature (e.g., Pelesko, 2007; Whitesides, 2002). Some definitions are fairly vague while others are more specific, providing exhaustive lists of necessary, and sometimes conflicting, characteristics of self-assembly. We asked self-assembly researchers (N=323) to respond to five published definitions of self-assembly. Analysis of researchers’ responses revealed a lack of consensus within the field as to what defines self-assembly. In this presentation, we will discuss the variety of characteristics used by researchers to align themselves with or dispute the published definitions of self-assembly.
