This project will provide travel funds to partially support approximately 15-20 graduate and post doctoral students and junior faculty to attend the 14th International Conference on Inorganic Membranes (ICIM 2016) at Georgia Tech, in Atlanta, GA from July 10-13, 2016. ICIM is the premier and long-standing conference series in the field of inorganic membranes, and is held every two years. The previous (13th) meeting, ICIM 2014, was held July 6-9, 2014 in Brisbane, Australia. Inorganic membranes have shown clear potential to play a key role in solving important societal challenges such as efficient production of fuels, chemicals, renewable energy, and drinking water; as well as advanced environmental remediation and climate change mitigation. ICIM is the only international conference dedicated to the science, engineering, and industrial use of inorganic membranes.
Funding from the National Science Foundation would be used for student and postdoc conference expenses and junior faculty, enabling more US engineers and scientists to participate in ICIM 2016. The expected outcomes include: 1. Enable greater participation by junior faculty and graduate students and thus facilitating networking opportunities and establish new domestic and international collaborations with veteran researchers. 2. Creation of opportunities for students and faculty to share their accomplishments with peers and more senior members of the community. The feedback they receive can help direct their work and provide encouragement. 3. In addition to the development of human resources, the support provided will allow presentation of the latest research results from the most innovative academic laboratories around the country.
