This proposal solicits funds in support of participants to the 2010 Granular and Granular Fluid Flow Gordon Research conference (June 20-25, Colby College, ME). Granular flows are prevalent in a range of natural and industrial systems, yet a basic understanding of many phenomena is lacking. The Gordon conferences provide a unique forum for the exchange of fresh scientific ideas. The guiding principles of the conference include the presentation of new, unpublished work followed by free, unhampered discussion among participants from disciplines that normally do not intersect. Since this field stands at the intersection of many disciplines, this installment of the Gordon conference includes invited speakers and discussion leaders from a wide range of disciplines, including Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, Statistics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences. Representatives from industrial labs like Xerox, Schlumberger, ExxonMobil, and Dow Chemical will also be encouraged to attend. We will also solicit attendance from federally-funded research agencies such as NETL and NASA. In order to move beyond incremental research, cross-fertilization of participants is needed, which involves not only bringing these scientists together, but also providing an environment that promotes their interaction. The structure of the Gordon conference accomplishes this task by providing formal discussion periods after every talk, free time in the afternoons for small-group, follow-on discussions, poster sessions, and shared meals and on-site housing. The Gordon format will provide an environment in which new collaborations can be forged to help tackle longstanding problems.
Broader Impact
The schedule has been prepared to ensure strong representational balance on several aspects: - Gender- 9 out of 31 invited speakers and discussion leaders are women - Discipline - The speakers are drawn from a wide range of affiliations, and institutional types. - Seniority - Several of the speakers are younger scientists. - Geography - A truly international set of scientists and engineers have been identified as speakers The financial support requested from NSF will allow us to fund emerging scientists (students, post-docs, and junior faculty) and under-represented groups to ensure a diverse audience is able to attend the meeting. Student and post-docs will be integrated into the meeting via contributions to the poster sessions. Younger scholars rarely have the opportunity to mingle with more established researchers from (i) a diversity of disciplines, (ii) in an environment where a large fraction of time is devoted to informal discussions. Furthermore, the programme has been prepared with a view to ensuring broad international representation. This exposure is invaluable in helping to address the national need for training of young U.S. researchers in the area of particle science.
The Gordon Research Conference on GRANULAR & GRANULAR-FLUID FLOW was held at Colby College, Waterville, ME June 20-25, 2010. The Conference was well-attended with 107 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 107 attendees, 40 voluntarily responded to a general inquiry regarding ethnicity which appears on our registration forms. Of the 40 respondents, 18% were Minorities – 18% Asian. Approximately 18% of the participants at the 2010 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.
