Granular materials (e.g. sand, powders and grains) are ubiquitous in nature, industry and our daily lives. Due to the ubiquity, understanding the static and dynamic behavior of granular materials from a fundamental perspective is an important topic that enters diverse scientific disciplines: From astrophysics to space exploration, from geoscience to additive manufacturing, from civil to chemical engineering. Although there has been a substantial progress in understanding the collective behavior of granular particles from the fundamental perspective of ‘phase transitions’, describing granular materials as a continuum still remains a challenge.

Funded by the Sino-German center for scientific promotions, the first Sino-German symposium on granular 'phase transitions' aims at bringing researchers from different disciplines, as well as from different countries together for a better understanding, predicting, controlling and eventually designing the static and dynamic behavior of granular materials.