The primary goal of the Second North American Symposium on Chemical Reaction Engineering (NASCRE), to be held in Houston, TX, February 4-7, 2007, is to promote interactions between industry and academia on frontier topics in chemical reaction engineering (CRE). The chemical industry faces many challenges in the 21st century, including increasing globalization, societal demands and governmental regulations for higher environmental performance, increased productivity and profitability to maintain global competitiveness, higher consumer expectations for product quality, and the changing work force requirements to meet these challenges. In addition, the challenge will be upon us within the next decade or two to produce fuels and synthetic chemicals from non-crude oil based feedstock(s). The scientific theme for NASCRE-2 "Chemical Reaction Engineering (CRE): The New Frontiers" is aimed at addressing these challenges. NASCRE-2 covers a broad range of topics, from the traditional to newer and emerging fields such as bio-pharmaceutical engineering and fuel cells. To promote a workshop-like environment of open discussion, the organizing committee has adopted a non-traditional conference format. Well-known experts in the field have agreed to serve as session chairs. Seven out of eight plenary speakers are industrial experts who have agreed to review significant advances in their topical area and to point out some of the grand challenges in the field. Additional presentations by leading speakers from industry, academia and governmental funding agencies, followed by a panel discussion and a question and answer session Q&A, will shed new light on the future challenges and opportunities in the profession. The technical program will feature a poster-intensive format, where each author will briefly present the work (what, how and why in six minutes) in a preview session and then later be available for discussion in a typical poster session. Each poster session will be followed by a sectional Q&A to wrap up the discussion. These funds are to subsidize conference registration and travel costs for young researchers (students, post doctoral associates and assistant professors).
Broader Impact
The NASCRE-2 participants will benefit from state-of-the-art reviews and presentations by leading experts, by exchanging the latest advances on frontier research subjects, and by debating controversial points with their peers in the CRE discipline. The meeting will provide an excellent opportunity for interaction and cooperation among industrial and academic researchers, from various countries around the world. The award of travel funds and registration subsidy are expected to attract many graduate students, including women and minorities, to the meeting that they may otherwise be unable to attend. The students and other young researchers will have an opportunity to interact with each other and with experienced researchers in the field, which will positively influence their professional development. By placing emphasis on problems that have a strong economic and technological impact, such as the development of fuel cells and biotechnology, the knowledge disseminated in NASCRE-2 will benefit the society at large. It is expected that the plenary lectures and the oral/poster presentations will stimulate many follow up investigations on these important topics. The resulting research and development activities will generate new technologies and materials that could enhance the US economy.
