Colloid Society: a historical perspective — all set for the next 100 years?

This paper discusses the situation of colloid science at the beginning of the twentieth century, and what in the end lead to the founding of the Kolloid-Gesellschaft (Colloid Society). One challenge when establishing a new interdisciplinary field of science is that experts from different areas and disciplines typically do not have an opportunity to meet with each other and discuss. Founding a society dealing with that new field is one way of bringing such people together, and to facilitate communication. Still going strong after 100 years could be an indication that the approach to foster colloid science by founding a Colloid Society was successful. The reasons leading to the founding of the Kolloid-Gesellschaft, however, still exist and even seem to be as modern as ever. Bringing people together who are working in different fields requires continuous efforts in order to solve the challenges of our future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]