This proposal seeks funds for a travel grant program that will provide support for researchers to attend the Gordon Research Conference Membranes: Materials and Processes to be held July 25-30, 2010, Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH. This Gordon Conference will provide an opportunity for graduate students, post-doctoral scholars, academicians, and industrial and national laboratory researchers to congregate and discuss cutting edge technology and current research trends and to share mutual experiences while building informal networks with peers that may lead to a lifetime of collaboration and scientific achievement.
Over the past 10-15 years, there has been tremendous activity and interest in membrane science and technology, driven largely by advances in our ability to control and analyze complex structures at the nanoscale. Additionally, critical societal needs in the areas of energy, water, bioprocessing, and the environment are providing exciting new opportunities for membrane technologies. These include the development of new membrane for hydrogen/oxygen, direct methanol, and alkaline fuel cells, membrane separations for the purification of ethanol produced from cellulosic biomass, and membrane systems for carbon dioxide removal from gas streams. The Gordon Research Conference on membranes will have specific sessions on contemporary topics dealing with energy production and storage, membrane technologies for energy efficiency, nanomanufacturing, and membranes for water purification. The discussions between the speakers and audience will provide valuable feedback on current research efforts and will enable the participants to further develop and refine new ideas for their own research and/or to initiate new membrane projects.
Gordon Research Conferences provide a setting where researchers can present their most recent and, at times, most controversial results. The conferences also foster informal discussions and networking that occur outside of the formal lecture sessions. Such interactions promote the generation of new ideas and new collaborations that assist in moving forward the field of membrane science.
The 2010 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Membranes: Materials & Processes was held in July 25 – 30, 2010 at Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH. The conference, attracting leading experts on membranes and other related areas from around the world, included new, exciting aspects of material science, chemistry, chemical engineering, computer simulation with participants from academia, industry and national laboratories. The technical program consisted of 19 oral and 1 keynote presentations, and two sessions of poster presentation. The conference also offered a social program to foster interaction among the conference participants. The oral and poster presentations were focused on cutting edge topics of membranes for addressing several grand challenges facing our society, in particular, energy, water, health and more generally sustainability. A total of 137 participants attended the conference, with 34% of the participants being students and post-docs. The NSF fund was used to provide partial support for the registration fees for 20 students and young membrane scientists. These students and young membrane scientists, most of them being the first time GRC conference participants, benefitted great deal from the presentations of the speakers, and discussion and interaction with senior participants. The conference received high-performance rating on all evaluation areas (science, discussion, management, atmosphere and suitability). The NSF support was critical to the success of the conference.
