The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on the need for antimicrobial materials, not just specifically against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, but against nosocomial pathogens (e.g., hospital acquired infections or HAIs) as well. Functional antimicrobial materials with self-disinfecting properties will play an increasingly important role over the coming years for pandemic prevention. Beyond these outbreaks, the need for antimicrobial products for infection prevention and control within hospitals is well-known: costing upwards of 100,000 deaths annually and $30-45 billion in health-care costs just in the United States, nosocomial infections are an ongoing major health threat that is often overlooked by the public. Dual-purpose antimicrobial materials that can be developed and deployed rapidly in response to an acute health emergency will also have significant benefit to the chronic problem of healthcare-associated infections in hospitals, while also protecting critical supply chains (e.g., food and goods) as well as transportation infrastructure. As no single approach will be able to address such societal needs, this symposium will focus attention on a variety of material design paradigms, spanning frontier research to more mature technologies, that address the need for self-disinfecting materials to prevent pathogen transmission.

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