International Travel: 9th International Conference on Fundamentals of Adsorption, FOA9 in Giardini Naxos, Sicily, Italy on May 20-25, 2007

University Of Virginia Main Campus, Charlottesville VA

Investigators

Abstract

Giorgio Carta International Travel: 9th International Conference on Fundamentals of Adsorption, FOA9 CTS - 0648823 This is an NSF travel grant that supports students, post doctoral fellows and faculty from US academic and nonprofit research institutions to attend the 9th International Conference on Fundamentals of Adsorption Science FAO9 to be held in Giardini Naxos in Sicily, Italy. The FOA conferences were established in 1983 in order to promote international scientific collaborations among adsorption scientists and engineers and the continued advancement of adsorption science and technology. The primary goal and hence intellectual merit of the 9th International Conference on Fundamentals of Adsorption is to allow scientists and engineers from all over the World to present their most recent research efforts in the area of Adsorption Science and Technology and to outline further developments in this area. The conference will allow US participants from academia and industry to interact with their international counterparts and especially to enhance and/or establish international collaborations and scientific exchange with adsorption researchers. The conference will cover a wide variety of adsorption related areas from fundamentals to applications in new and emerging fields including biotechnology, alternative energy, and environmental protection and remediation. The conference will consist of plenary sessions, oral sessions and poster sessions. To set the stage for the conference, plenary speakers will present in depth overviews of key research areas covering fundamentals, materials, molecular modeling, and processes. The conference will last for five and one half days, and host approximately 400 participants from around the world. Only tenure-track faculty members and their graduate students in US educational institutions and researchers in US nonprofit research institutions who will have an oral or poster presentation at the meeting will be eligible to apply for this NSF support. Priority will be given to young faculty (who have been in academia for no more than 5 years) and younger doctoral students who are at least one year away from graduation, with each applicant receiving a minimum of $400 up to a maximum of $800. We anticipate making up to ten $500 awards to young faculty and up to five $600 awards to doctoral students, Any remaining funds will be used to make $400 travel awards to other conference participants on a need basis. Eligible attendees will be asked to send an application within 45 days after the conference to the PI including a letter, co-signed by the Chairperson (or equivalent), requesting partial reimbursement of travel expenses and stating their eligibility for refund under the NSF regulations and according to the above eligibility criteria, an airline ticket receipt, and original boarding passes. The allowance for air travel will not exceed the cost of a round-trip, economy airfare ticket; and eligible participants from the US will also be informed that they must travel by US-flag carriers, if available. The attendees will be reimbursed within 90 days after the conference. The broader impacts of FOA9 are mainly associated with the potential technological advances in energy, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and environmental applications made possible by sharing new adsorption-related scientific information at the highest level. Additional broader impacts will be associated with the participation of young faculty and doctoral students facilitated by the proposed travel funds, and their exposure to the frontiers of adsorption science and technology in a truly interdisciplinary and international scientific gathering.