This award partially supports the 6th Japan-US Joint Seminar on Nanoscale Transport Phenomena?Science and Engineering, which will be held in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 13-16, 2008. The purpose of this meeting is to continue this highly successful series of meetings between US and Japanese researchers in the field of nanoscale transport processes, with particular emphasis on thermal transport. These meetings have been held every three years, and alternate between locations in Japan and in the US.
With respect to the intellectual merit of the conference, the study of nanoscale transport processes remains at the forefront of thermofluids research. Both the US and the Japanese sides bring their own particular specialties and depths to this meeting. Traditionally, the Japanese researchers have been very strong at molecular dynamics simulations, and the US side has exhibited strength in experimental measurements at the nanoscale. Partly as a result of previous NSF-supported workshops, the US side has gained considerable expertise in molecular dynamics computations. It is likely that, likewise, this sixth meeting will stimulate further exchanges of information that will lead to more advances in this field.
The broader impacts of the conference include the opportunity for US researchers, both junior and senior, to meet their Japanese counterparts and to hold discussions with them at considerable length. A number of US-based graduate students, and underrepresented minorities and women, will be supported by the NSF award. Selected papers presented at this meeting will be published in the journal Nano/Microscale Thermophysical Engineering, which will allow for broad dissemination of the workshop.
