This Pan-American Advanced Studies Institute (PASI), jointly supported by the NSF and Department of Energy (DOE), will take place in Buzios, Brazil in October, 2007, concerning the ultra-fast and ultra-small as new frontiers in and beyond atomic, molecular and optical (AMO) physics, chemistry, and material science. Organized by Dr. Robert DuBois of the University of Missouri Rolla, the institute will involve approximately 30 participants from the United States and Latin America including graduate students and junior and established investigators, and about 10 instructors (internationally recognized scientists, active in the field). The activities will consist of a combination of tutorial lectures, advanced-topic presentations, round table discussions, and poster sessions, with the goal of providing the participants with an up-to-date review of these relatively new areas of research, the ultra-fast and the ultra-small. The ultra-fast includes timeframes ranging from femtoseconds to attoseconds, and the ultra-small studies lengths ranging from a few to many tens of nanometers. Recent results on work being done are already expanding the borders of physics, chemistry and material science and influencing our understanding of physical and chemical processes.
The wide range of applications and materials will impart a significant interdisciplinary nature to the Institute, and should foster the cross-fertilization of new ideas to advance these fields and, ultimately, increase relations between Latin American junior and senior investigators and their counterparts in the U.S. Materials presented at the Institute will be posted in a designated web site for further dissemination to the scientific community and the public at large.
