The Experimental NMR Conference (ENC) is the premier annual scientific meeting devoted to technical aspects and applications of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, including solution-state, solid-state, and imaging methods and applications in physics, chemistry, materials science, and biology. The 46th ENC will be held April 10, 2005 through April 15, 2005 in Providence, RI. Attendance at the meeting will be approximately 1,400 scientists, including graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and senior scientists, from the U.S. and other countries. Approximately 250 of the attendees are graduate students. The meeting is comprised of plenary and poster sessions. Plenary sessions include invited speakers and promoted poster talks. Approximately 45 invited plenary talks and 20 promoted poster talks are scheduled during the meeting. Approximately 600 posters are presented during the meeting. The focus of the meeting is new technical developments and applications of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The ENC is the only major conference in the U.S. in which all aspects of the field, including solution-state, solid-state, and imaging methods, are presented. For many years the ENC has funded a student travel stipend program to enable graduate students to attend the ENC. Historically, funds have been obtained from two sources: a percentage of conference registration fees and contributions from companies. Attending the ENC is an important supplement to graduate education in NMR spectroscopy: the ENC provides a graduate student with unparalleled exposure to the full range of the field and its practitioners and enables students to present their own work to the widest possible audience. At present, only some 65 students (both U.S. and international), representing 25% of the graduate student attendees, can be provided with travel stipends. Support is requested from the National Institutes of Health to enable the ENC to expand the student travel stipend program by approximately 10 to 15 students. This would permit an increased number of deserving students to attend the conference.
