This award supports the participation of US scientists at 18th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation (GR18) and the 7th Eduardo Amaldi (Amaldi7) meeting on Gravitational Waves to be held jointly in Sydney, Australia, July 8-14, 2007. The "GR" meetings have been held regularly every three years since the late 1950's and now involve approximately 500-1000 researchers worldwide. The Amaldi meetings have been held every 2 years since 1999 and represent the most important international venue for the developing field of gravitational wave science. The purpose of this award is to allow a strong US presence at the joint meeting and to allow US researchers to keep current with the latest developments in their fields. The funds will be distributed by a committee of leading US researchers and will consist of partial travel support, leverage to an efficient leveraging of NSF resources with other sources of funding that researchers might have. Women and underrepresented minorities will be encouraged to apply. The broad impact of this proposal will be in the preparation of human resources. Special preference will be given to applications from young researchers. Attendance at major international conferences is a formative event in the preparation of the new generation of US researchers in the field.
