The 2012 Origins of Life Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) will be held on January 8-13 and 7-8, respectively at the Hotel Galvez in Galveston, TX. The overarching goal of the 2012 Origin of Life Gordon Conference, (GRC), will be to foster new collaborations that will move us toward a more complete understanding of the origin, distribution and early history of living systems. Towards this end, the 2012 GRC will create a forum for the synthesis and evaluation of new concepts, and a mechanism to clarify and crystallize new research directions. The Origin of Life GRC fills a unique role: there are no other meetings allowing focused discussion on just the Origin of Life problem in the US. The GRC will bring together scientists with a common interest in the Origin of Life and overlapping specializations for a week of intense discussion and examination of the most advanced topics in the field. Some of the proposed meeting topics include:
Genetics, Energetics and Compartmentalization Organics in Meteorites Early Earth Environments Prebiotic Chemistry and Self-Organization Laboratory Models of Cellular Processes Early Translation
Broader Impacts At this year's conference, approximately 25% of the speakers will be women. It is anticipated that the majority of the session chairs for both the GRS and the GRC will also be women prominent in their respective disciplines. A concerted effort has been made to advertise the meeting to national and international organizations, including former attendees of GRC and GRS meetings in this and other disciplines, the members of all of the major international astrobiological societies, as well as SACNAS (a society of scientists dedicated to advancing Hispanics/Chicanos and Native Americans in science) and Spelman College, a historically black women?s college in Atlanta, GA.
The Gordon Research Conference on ORIGIN OF LIFE was held at the Hotel Galvez, Galveston, Texas January 8- 13, 2012. The Conference was well-attended with 106 participants (attendees list attached). The attendees represented the spectrum of endeavor in this field coming from academia, industry, and government laboratories, both U.S. and foreign scientists, senior researchers, young investigators, and students. Of the 106 attendees, 52 voluntarily responded to a general inquiry regarding ethnicity which appears on our registration forms. Of the 52 respondents, 14% were Minorities – 4% Hispanic, 8% Asian and 2% African American. Approximately 31 % of the participants at the 2012 meeting were women. The Gordon Research Seminar on ORIGIN OF LIFE was held at the Hotel Galvez, Galveston, Texas January 7 - 8, 2012. The Conference was well-attended with 46 participants (attendees list attached). The attendees represented the spectrum of endeavor in this field coming from academia, industry, and government laboratories, both U.S. and foreign scientists, senior researchers, young investigators, and students. Of the 46 attendees, 17 voluntarily responded to a general inquiry regarding ethnicity which appears on our registration forms. Of the 17 respondents, 2% were Minorities – 0% Hispanic, 2% Asian and 0% African American. Approximately 35% of the participants at the 2012 meeting were women. In designing the formal speakers program, emphasis was placed on current unpublished research and discussion of the future target areas in this field. There was a conscious effort to stimulate lively discussion about the key issues in the field today. Time for formal presentations was limited in the interest of group discussions. In order that more scientists could communicate their most recent results, poster presentation time was scheduled. Attached is a copy of the formal schedule and speaker program and the poster program. In addition to these formal interactions, "free time" was scheduled to allow informal discussions. Such discussions are fostering new collaborations and joint efforts in the field. Thank you for your support of this Conference. As you know, in the interest of promoting the presentation of unpublished and frontier-breaking research, Gordon Research Conferences does not permit publication of meeting proceedings. If you wish any further details, please feel free to contact me
