The Gordon Research Conferences (GRC) bring together active researchers, both experts and beginners, in a broadly defined scientific field. The purpose is to identify and analyze key issues, recent advances, and opportunities for new research through invited lectures, contributed posters, and extensive informal discussions. One specific objective of this proposal is to secure partial funding for the 2003 GRC on Electronic Spectroscopy and Dynamics (ES&D), to be held on July 6 - 11, at Bates College, in Lewiston, Maine. ES&D is an exceptionally broad and timely topic, ranging from the study of how one atom in a diatomic molecule probes the electronic wavefunction of the other atom, to the study of how the electronic structure of biological light harvesting antenna systems controls the energy transport mechanism. Until recently, molecular electronic wavefunctions were only indirectly probed by experiment; now not only do direct visualization methods exist for electron distribution in molecules, but schemes also exist for creating, exploiting, and controlling the dynamics of specific, localized, electronic, and nuclear wavepacket excitations. New microscopic systems (Bose Einstein Condensates, molecules doped into superfluid 4 He droplets, single nanoparticles) have emerged that exhibit novel electronic/nuclear/radiation coupling mechanisms. Molecules in new environments (supercritical fluids, superfluid 4 He, crystalline H2 matrices) or subject to novel radiation fields (half-cycle and chirped pulse sequences, subfemtosecond pulses) raise questions and possibilities that were unimagined at the time of the previous MES&D-GRCs. ES&D is an area of enormous fundamental and technological importance. Nine scientific sessions, featuring 31 invited speakers, are planned. Each session will have an expert chair (often the person who instituted the field) who can guide and energize the discussion and give some perspective to the topic considered. Topics to be discussed include: imaging electronic distributions and dynamics of reactions; low temperature ( 3 He/ 4 He) isolation spectroscopy; small clusters of molecules, organic and inorganic; biomolecules in the gas phase and condensed phase; strong field, superfast, coherent, and nonlinear interactions of radiation and matter; condensed phase dynamics; nanoparticles and materials; and interfaces. Two poster sessions (each lasting for two days and nights) are planned to encourage graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, young investigators, and all attendees to present their research. This ES&D-GRC traditionally attracts a diverse group of scientists, from academe, national laboratories, and industry. This diverse group includes basic researchers studying fundamental aspects of electronic spectroscopy to more applied scientists pursuing more practical problems. A special effort has been made to include younger scientists (nearly half of the invited speakers) and women (4 of 31) among the invited speakers. The limited attendance (~100), focused yet interdisciplinary scientific sessions (35 minutes for each invited talk followed by 10 minutes of discussion), lively poster sessions, informal gatherings and events, and an international spectrum of invited speakers will provide an exciting and effective forum for the formulation and exchange of new ideas. The intent of this broad program and participation base, and focus on younger investigators from around the world, is designed to emphasize the central importance of spectroscopy and radiation/matter interactions to the advancement of physical science. The requested funding will be used to encourage junior investigators, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows to attend the meeting and present their research through support for their conference fees and travel expenses.
