This award will provide partial support to enable junior scientists to attend the upcoming meeting entitled, "Hot Quarks 2010: A Workshop on the Physics of Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions for Young Scientists," to be held La Londe Les Maures, France, June 21-26, 2010.
The main topic of the workshop is the physics of strongly interacting nuclear matter at extreme energy densities. Quantum Chromo-Dynamics, the theory describing the forces acting within atomic nuclei, predicts that at sufficiently high temperatures and/or densities, matter should undergo a transition from the standard hadronic phase to a plasma of deconfined quarks and gluons (Quark Gluon Plasma, QGP) - a transition which, according to our cosmological models, took place in the early universe about 10 microseconds after the Big Bang.
Already the programs at the Brookhaven National Laboratory Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) and the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) have produced evidence for the onset of new phenomena. The research in this field is now successfully continuing at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) at BNL while the next phase, to take place at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is under preparation. There are around 2000 physicists worldwide working in the field: a very active and lively, expanding community. In such a context, good communication and networking, especially among the young and productive members in the field, are vital.
The aim of this particular workshop is to enhance the direct exchange of scientific information among the younger members of the community (graduate students, postdocs and junior faculty), both from the experiment and theory. Participation in the workshop will be by invitation only - in order to strengthen the emphasis on younger members of the community, participation will be restricted to people who have obtained their Ph.D. within the past 12 years.
This particular approach makes the workshop unique among the various workshops and conferences in the field. For young scientists it represents an opportunity for exchange and exposure that that they would not have in one of the major big conferences. It will help to stimulate the next generation of the field and strengthen their sense of community.
This NSF award was in support of the Hot Quarks conference series. The aim of the Hot Quarks workshop, which is a topical workshop in the field if ultra-relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions, is to enhance the direct exchange of scientific information among the younger members of the community. The participants are mainly graduate students and postdocs from both experiment and theory who are in the very early stages of their career. The workshops provided a unique atmosphere; in which every participant presented his/her work and all then participated in the lively discussions after. We believe that this approach makes the workshop unique among the majority of workshops and conferences. For young scientists it provides an opportunity for exchange and exposure that they do not have at the big conferences in this field. This conference series strengthens the sense of community among the younger members and helps stimulate the next generation of the field. The structure of these workshops was very similar: the scientific programs had morning and late afternoon/evening sessions. The afternoons were dedicated to informal discussions, and the "retreat" atmosphere greatly enhanced interaction among the participants. An unconventional, but highly successful, element of all sessions was the use of regularly circulating boxes in which everyone could deposit questions anonymously. At the end of each session the organizers collected these questions and used them to create an ad-hoc question-and-answer session. While the well-timed presentations of most speakers allowed keeping the workshop schedule, these discussions regularly exceeded the scheduled time of one hour and often even continued during the shifted lunches and dinners. All the feed-back we have had indicates that these workshops were not only scientifically of the highest standard, but conveyed an enthusiasm which stimulates all – but in particular the targeted young – scientists to help shape the future of the field.
