Interstellar Soot and Sand with JWST

Our view of the Milky Way is strongly influenced by dust in the Interstellar Medium. Measuring the size distribution and composition of dust grains through interstellar extinction will help to constrain their origin and evolution. This workshop will bring together experts on interstellar dust properties to study dust in the diffuse interstellar medium on different sightlines toward OB stars in the Galaxy. These stars will be observed by JWST, HST and VLT XSHOOTER in order to measure absorption features from carbonaceous and silicate dust, which enables a unique characterization of the dust properties along these sightlines. Combining the multiwavelength data provides a powerful benchmark resource for studying the diffuse Interstellar Medium using the full range of dust extinction features exhibited across far-UV to mid-IR wavelengths. The meeting will be focussed on improving current interstellar dust databases and dust models, investigating the observed sources and developing fitting methods to study the data.