This award will provide partial support for participants from the US to attend the International Conference on Powders and Grains to be held in Stuttgart, Germany from July 18-22, 2005. This conference is held once every four years (1989-France, 1993-England, 2001-USA) and brings together contributors from physics, mathematics, and engineering disciplines. This conference's focus is on the influence of the microscopic properties on macroscopic behavior of granular media. Invited and contributed talks and posters to be presented are on a broad spectrum of topics such as, Rapid Flow of grains, Vibrations and Waves in Granular Materials, Mathematical Modeling, Nanoparticles as Granular Materials, Soil Properties and Deformation, etc. The detailed program is available at the website:www.ica1.uni-stuttgart.de/~pg2005/. Funds from this project will be used to support the attendance of junior faculty, post-docs and graduate students who will not otherwise be able to participate in the conference. The selection process will be based on need and will seek to ensure participation from a diverse group of researchers, especially those from under-represented groups.
