Symposium DD, 'De Novo Carbon Nanomaterials' and Symposium EE, 'New Functional Nanocarbon Devices' were held April 9–13 at the 2012 MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco, California. A variety of electronic, mechanical, optical and chemical properties of carbon nanomaterials derive from its different allotropes including nanotubes, fullerenes, diamond, amorphous carbon and grapheme. Applications of such multiscale-engineered materials are diverse and range from nano-electronics to novel construction materials, and could have wide-ranging implications to facilitate new technological innovations at the interface of materials science, engineering and biology. This symposium proceedings volume represents the recent advances in the manufacturing, synthesis and modeling of carbon nanomaterials with applications in novel devices.