The translocation of long polymeric molecules is of central importance to technology, ranging from gel permeation, chromatography, to enhanced oil recovery and genomics. This has lead to a plethora of experimental observations, theoretical predictions, and results from computer simulations that study and elucidate various aspects of the underlying translocation dynamics. However, notwithstanding the significance of translocation phenomena both as a possible technological application and from the standpoint of basic research, the understanding of this phenomenon is still elusive and, in some respects, controversial. There is a strong appeal for a forum where researchers with different background could exchange ideas and latest findings  in an effort to provide the needed insight and mutually accepted interpretation that would clear the way for  further progress in this important field of modern interdisciplinary science. 

To our best knowledge, no symposium or workshop,  focused on this topic, has been hitherto staged in Europe so the intended subject of discussion can be viewed as entirely new and warranted.

A Workshop of Polymer Dynamics in 2012 would come timely since the last conference in Europe where such topics have been discussed (Dynamics Days Europe 2008 Conference in Delft, The Netherlands) lies meanwhile 4 years ago amid a rapid accumulation of new experimental and modeling data. 

The translocation of long polymeric molecules is of central importance to technology, ranging from gel permeation, chromatography, to enhanced oil recovery and genomics. This has lead to a plethora of experimental observations, theoretical predictions, and results from computer simulations that study and elucidate various aspects of the underlying translocation dynamics. However, notwithstanding the significance of translocation phenomena both as a possible technological application and from the standpoint of basic research, the understanding of this phenomenon is still elusive and, in some respects, controversial. There is a strong appeal for a forum where researchers with different background could exchange ideas and latest findings  in an effort to provide the needed insight and mutually accepted interpretation that would clear the way for  further progress in this important field of modern interdisciplinary science. 
To our best knowledge, no symposium or workshop,  focused on this topic, has been hitherto staged in Europe so the intended subject of discussion can be viewed as entirely new and warranted.
A Workshop of Polymer Dynamics in 2012 would come timely since the last conference in Europe where such topics have been discussed (Dynamics Days Europe 2008 Conference in Delft, The Netherlands) lies meanwhile 4 years ago amid a rapid accumulation of new experimental and modeling data. 

The migration of biopolymers through nanopores plays a key role in several biological processes, including the transport of messenger RNA molecules from nucleus to the cytoplasm following transcription, the transport of proteins  to and from the nucleus, and the injection of viral DNA into a host cell [1]. Moreover, the translocation process has been argued to have far-reaching  technological potential, for instance, in the development of bio-sensors for rapid polynucleotide analysis and sequencing, for gene therapy, and controlled drug delivery.

Apart from the biological and technological relevance, polymer transloation is of fundamental interest in polymer physics and chemistry [2,3]. In view of its biological and technological significance, polymer translocation dynamics has become recently the subject of numerous experimental [4-7], theoretical [8-12], and computer modeling [13-26] investigations. 

Despite of the extensive research, however, even the dynamics of the generic process still remains relatively poorly understood [3,20]. Various aspects that concern, e.g.,  the size and  properties of the pore, the kind of polymer-pore interactions, the role of hydrodynamic interactions in the translocation process, etc., require further serious investigations. Meanwhile it has become clear that the theoretical treatments [8,9], using the concept of equilibrium entropy and the ensuing entropic barrier which has to be surmounted by a  macromolecule threading through a pore, provide inappropriate description of translocation dynamics and its most important measure - the mean translocation time as a function of polymer chain length and driving force strength. The very nature of the translocation dynamics which is currently believed to be an example  of anomalous diffusion remains controversial [13], and the assumed mean translocation time universality, especially for driven translocations, is strongly questioned.   More recent non-equilibrium approaches [12,17], being certainly a step in the right direction, are challenged and still need confirmation. Generally, it appears that one currently lacks a satisfactory interpretation for the broad (and to some extent, contradictory) variety of predicted and reported results [3]. Even though some recent multiscale simulations [25] on a biopolymer translocation in a solvent indicate findings in agreement with experiments, there exists a strong appeal for a consistent microscopic understanding which could grasp the many-body nature of this phenomenon in its complexity and reduce it to few clear predictions that relate the main observables to the governing parameters.