Proposal for the 2007 CALPHAD Meeting at The Pennsylvania State University; University Park, PA; May 6-11, 2007

Calphad, Inc., Brookline MA

Investigators

Abstract

TECHNICAL: The CALPHAD meeting is a principle venue for exploring the power of thermodynamics and kinetics in materials science and engineering; CALPHAD is an acronym for CALculation of PHAse Diagram, which was originally developed for modeling of thermodynamic properties and has been extended to modeling a wide range of materials properties such as diffusion coefficients, molar volume, and elastic constant. The objectives of the meeting are as follows (a) Discuss fundamental approaches in computational materials science, including first-principles calculations, thermodynamic and kinetic modeling, kinetic simulations, and industrial applications, (b) Define problems in emerging new materials such as bulk metallic amorphous, nano-materials, bio-materials, materials for energy conversion and storage, and (c) Educate students and connect them with the state-of-the-art topics in the fields and scientists who carry out the state-of-the-art researches through the intensive, one-week interactions by eating, living, staying all under the same roof. The conference would enable intensive scientific discussions of fundamental issues in computational materials science and engineering with experts from typically more than 20 countries. This meeting will bring scientists from several communities together including first-principles calculations, thermodynamic and kinetic modeling, kinetic simulations, experimental study, and industrial applications, and will be for a wide range of materials. In this one-week meeting, all participants will stay in the same hotel, eat in the same restaurants, and attend the same oral and poster presentations. Under such an environment, the state-of-the-art in the fields can be discussed thoroughly, new scientific problems can be defined properly, and future activities can be charted rightfully. NON-TECHNICAL: In materials science and engineering, thermodynamics and kinetics have always been considered to be the core components of the curriculum. However, it has also been widely perceived that thermodynamics is abstract and represents equilibrium states only, and kinetics is highly mathematical, partially because the fundamental concepts in thermodynamics and kinetics could only be quantified for binary and a few ternary systems with simple reactions and often for dilute solutions. More complicated cases could not be dealt with due to the lack of data and tools. The conference will broadly impact the education of next generation of scientists and engineers through supporting students to attend the meeting. The researches results from the PI's research lab, which is supported by the National Science Foundation, would also be disseminated to a broader, interdisciplinary audience and attract more students to the field of computational materials science. The CALPHAD meeting promotes significantly international collaborations. The PI is currently advising 6 female graduate students and will take this opportunity to encourage more female and under-represented students to attend the meeting. The funds requested will be used to support students to attend the CALPHAD meeting by providing them the registration fees.