Twenty-first century materials and devices willbe made and tailored to target specifications, combining disparate and even competing attributes of multiple materials classesto achieve new functionality. We also highlight therole of computer simulation in discovering the fundamental principles of assembly science and providing critical design tools for assemblyengineering of complex nanostructured materials.IntroductionWe are in the midst of a materials revolution-a revolution inwhich materials will be designed, optimized, and engineered,rather than merely selected, for targeted properties, behavior,and function. Bottom-up assembly engineering based on the self- and directed-assembly ofpolymer-based building blocks has been considered a powerful means to robustly fabricate and efficiently manipulate target nanostructures.Here, we give a brief review of the recent advances in assembly and reconfigurability of polymer-based nanostructures. Glotzer at (Received 15 April 2015 accepted 13 July 2015)AbstractPolymer-based nanomaterials have captured increasing interest over the past decades for their promising use in a wide variety of applicationsincluding photovoltaics, catalysis, optics, and energy storage. Glotzer, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA Department of ChemicalEngineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USAAddress all correspondence to Sharon C. Marson*, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USATrung Dac Nguyen*, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USASharon C. MRS Communications (2015), 1 of 10 Materials Research Society, 2015doi:10.1557/mrc.2015.54Polymers/Soft Matter Prospective ArticlesRational design of nanomaterials from assembly and reconfigurability ofpolymer-tethered nanoparticlesRyan L.