This grant provides funds for a student paper competition and travel fellowships for graduate students from US universities to attend and participate in Phononics 2011: The First International Conference on Phononic Crystals, Metamaterials, and Optomechanics, to be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 29 through June 2, 2011). The study of phonons - although a core discipline in the conventional condensed matter physics literature - is currently being viewed in a new light. Whether examined at the nanoscale, microscale or larger scales, the analysis and manipulation of phonons (aka phononics) is opening up a new technological frontier with a potential impact that could match that of electronics almost half a century ago. This conference is the world's first conference to bring together the various sub-disciplines related to the study of phonons across the various length scales. The conference covers the following seven themes: (1) phononic crystals, (2) phononic metamaterials, (3) wave propagation in periodic structures, (4) nanoscale phonon transport, (5) phononic MEMS and RF applications, (6) optomechanics, and (7) characterization and fabrication for phononics.
Through this grant NSF supports the conference by (1) provision of travel fellowships for graduate students from US universities to attend and participate in the conference; and (2) sponsorship of a student paper competition, coordinated by the conference organizing committees, for Best, Second Best and Third Best Paper. This support helps the conference in its mission to establish links among the broad and multidisciplinary US and international scientific communities working in phononics, and enhances the educational mission of the conference by encouraging the participation of numerous US-based students pursuing graduate studies in areas directly related to this emerging field.
Phononics 2011: The First International Conference on Phononic Crystals, Metamaterials, and Optomechanics was held from May 29, 2011 through June 2, 2011 in Santa Fe, NM. The website for the conference is at: www.phononics2011.org. The conference organization was led by Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Colorado Boulder with active collaboration from the University of New Mexico. In addition to the organizers, the scientific leadership of the conference was augmented with a selection of international researchers widely recognized as "leaders" in the field. The main topic of the conference was phonons and their manipulation. The study of phonons – although a core discipline in the conventional condensed matter physics literature – has been viewed in new light in recent years. Whether examined at the nanoscale, microscale, or larger scales, the analysis and manipulation of phonons (aka phononics) has been opening up a new technological frontier with a potential impact that could match that of electronics almost half a century ago. Indeed a rival field, photonics, has been gathering similar momentum. Looking closely, phononics encompass a range of interconnected disciplines, usually labeled in terms of the type of host "material" that provides the medium for phononic wave propagation. These include phononic crystals, phononic metamaterials, superlattices and periodic structures. The application domains that these phononic materials are impacting, with increasing promise, range from vibration isolation in MEMS components, through frequency sensing in RF communications, to nano-scale thermal transport control in semiconductors. With the recent advent of metamaterials, exotic applications are now added to the list such as acoustic cloaking and superlensing. The interaction of mechanical waves with their optical counterpart in a lattice, i.e., optomechanics, is opening up yet another barrage of opportunities especially in telecommunications. Motivated by the growth and potential of these areas of research, the conference was divided into 7 subtopics: 1) Phononic crystals 2) Phononic metamaterials 3) Wave propagation in periodic structures 4) Nanoscale phonon transport 5) Phononic MEMS and RF applications 6) Optomechanics 7) Fabrication and characterization of phononics The number of abstracts submitted to the conference exceeded 180, including over 60 distinguished invited speakers, and representing a large number of nations from across the globe. A complete list of invited speakers and their affiliations is available at: https://phononics2011.org/conf/index.php/phononics/2011/pages/view/invited-speakers. The co-PI’s sought NSF support for this conference for two reasons: (1) help establish links between the foundation and the broad and multidisciplinary international scientific community working in the emerging field of phononics, and (2) enhance the educational mission of the conference by supporting young scientist travel fellowships as well as an in-conference student paper competition. As such, the funds were split into two categories: travel fellowships, and prizes and expenses for the student competitions. A total of USD 9000 was disbursed to 11 students from 6 different universities in the United States. The following is a detailed list of the students and their universities. Osama R. Bilal, University of Colorado Boulder Stefan Bringuier, University of Arizona Bruce L. Davis, University of Colorado Boulder Drew F. Goettler, University of New Mexico Nai-Kuei Kuo, University of Pennsylvania Andrea Leonard, California Institute of Technology Kevin L. Manktelow, Georgia Institute of Technology Reza Pourabolghasem, Georgia Institute of Technology Matteo Senesi, Georgia Institute of Technology Nick Swinteck, University of Arizona Andrew I. Young, University of New Mexico The travel fellowships were used for registration fees, travel, and accommodation expenses of the recipients. A total of USD 1000 was disbursed to 4 student winners from 3 different universities in the United States. The first competition was for students presenting an oral presentation, and the second competition was open to students presenting a poster presentation. The competitions were judged by the members of the International Organizing Committee. The criteria for judging the participants in the competitions are provided at https://phononics2011.org/conf/public/conferences/1/Student_Paper_Competition_Scoring_Criteria.pdf The following is a detailed list of the student winners and their universities: "Best Student Oral Presentation" Competition 1st Place, Phononics 2011 NSF Best Student Oral Presentation Award: Bruce L. Davis, University of Colorado Boulder 2nd Place, Phononics 2011 NSF Best Student Oral Presentation Award: Drew F. Goettler, University of New Mexico "Best Student Poster Presentation" Competition 1st Place, Phononics 2011 NSF Best Student Poster Presentation Award: Matteo Senesi, Georgia Institute of Technology 2nd Place, Phononics 2011 NSF Best Student Poster Presentation Award: Andrew S. Tomchek, University of Colorado Boulder This grant covers the travel fellowship portion of the funding.
