Division XII / Commission 14 / Working Group Solids and Their Surfaces

The ISO and Spitzer space observatories yielded a treasure trove of data on dust and ices covering dust grains. Now Herschel, and soon SOFIA and ALMA, will provide unprecedented views of the molecular world of the interstellar medium (ISM). It is on dust grains that key ISM molecules, such as hydrogen, formaldehyde, methanol, and water are formed. As a result of these new observations, there is a great need to know more about the interaction processes of atoms and molecules with dust grains. (The Proceedings of the 2010 NASA Laboratory Astrophysics Workshop (http://www-cfadc.phy.ornl.gov/nasa_law/) give a good view of recent accomplishments in the study of atom/molecule - solid interactions as well as other aspects of laboratory astrophysics.)