The US 2013 (National) Combustion Meeting will bring together experts of a wide range of areas related to combustion and fire, from academia, industry, and government agencies, where exchange of ideas and research results and brainstorming take place among attendees. The proposed funding is to provide travel support to students who will be presenting their research at the meeting.
Introduction & Intellectual Merit Combustion has long been at the heart of the economy for the developed world. Not only does it provide the backbone of our stationary power generation, but it also facilitates transportation in most common forms. While renewable energy is playing an increasingly important role, combustion will remain the most dominant domestic energy source for the near future due to the vast reserves of coal and natural gas present in the United States. Given these vast reserves, together with environmental impacts related to combustion, an improved understanding of combustion to provide more efficient and responsible use of our natural resources remains an issue of paramount importance to society. Discovery of new knowledge, dissemination of that knowledge, and training new engineers and scientists in combustion is achieved, in part, through technical meetings such as those provided through the Combustion Institute . The Combustion Institute holds biennial international meetings (symposia) that are considered to be the premier forum for presenting current advances in the field. The United States sections of the Combustion Institute hold a biennial national meeting on alternating years with the biennial international meeting. The US National meeting represents one of the largest meetings of the Combustion Institute, an international organization founded in 1954 to promote research in combustion science and applications. The eighth such meeting was held in Park City, Utah from May 19-22, 2013, and was hosted by the University of Utah and the Western States Section of the Combustion Institute. This meeting brought together researchers from around the United States and Canada who are engaged in all aspects of combustion research to share recent advances in the field. Conference Details The meeting organizing committee was comprised of James C. Sutherland (chair & P.I. - University of Utah), JoAnn Lighty (University of Utah) and Chris Shaddix (Sandia National Laboratories). This committee is responsible for the meeting logistical and financial arrangements. The program committee is comprised of Judith Steciak (chair - University of Idaho) and Kalyanasundaram Seshadri (UC San Diego). Three plenary sessions were featured, with speakers selected from a broad spectrum of the combustion community. Approximately 335 contributed papers were presented in eight parallel sessions. Additionally, a poster session was held, where approximately 29 posters were presented. Broader Impact Dissemination of Results Papers presented at the conference are available through the conference web page, (http://combustion2013.utah.edu) as well as on digital media distributed to conference attendees. Outreach Activities The meeting featured a "women in combustion" event to encourage networking between women in the field and provide opportunities for female graduate students to meet role models and mentors in faculty, government and industrial positions. Student Participation The US National Combustion meeting has long been a venue where students can present their research, and this meeting was very successful in engaging students, who accounted for nearly 50% of registrants. Financial Support from NSF The National Science Foundation provided $10,000 to support student participation in the 2013 US National Combustion meeting. With this funding, 63 students were provided travel awards of $150 each. All NSF funding was used specifically to support student participation in the conference. Figure 1 shows the breakdown of meeting participants, where "late" indicates on-site registration. The meeting had approximately 420 attendees, with approximately half of those being students. To qualify for financial support, students were required to present a paper at the meeting, travel a minimum of 200 miles, and have an advisor also attending the meeting.
