Travel Grant for Eighth Mediterranean Chemical Engineering Conference to be held in Israel in 2014

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY

Investigators

Abstract

1248189 Cramer This international travel grant seeks support for 22 U.S. academic representatives to attend the 8th Eastern Mediterranean Chemical Engineering Conference (EMCC8) to be held in Israel in 2014. This conference will involve the participation of Israel, Greece, Turkey, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania and the United States. Academic chemical engineers from other Eastern Mediterranean countries will also be invited. Professor Yachin Cohen, Head of the Chemical Engineering Department at Technion (Israel) will be the Chair of this conference. Intellectual Merit: The EMCC8 will promote research collaborations from around the world and enhance research and teaching in chemical engineering through interactive forums. This conference will foster extensive scientific and personal exchanges similar to a Gordon Research Conference. The U.S. will benefit from exposure to the high-level of expertise from participating countries in research areas such as transport phenomena, molecular dynamics, computer simulations, biotechnology, reaction engineering and separation technologies. These areas have great relevance to water purification, environmental remediation, energy production, pharmaceutical development, food production, and more. As in previous conferences, it is expected the participants will be made up of approximately 25 academic chemical engineers from the U.S., 50 from the host country (Israel), at least 20 from Italy, Greece, Turkey, and participants from Bulgaria and Romania. In addition, it is expected that a large number of graduate students will attend from participating Eastern Mediterranean Countries. The U.S. EMCC coordinating committee consisting of Steve Cramer (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Nick Abbott (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Alex Katz (University of California-Berkeley) will select a combination of senior and young investigators who produce excellent research and are committed to establishing and continuing collaborations with investigators from other participating countries. Special travel supplements will also be provided to five U.S. participants to visit and lecture in Israel and other participating countries to develop and/or promote collaborations. Broader Impacts: Based on the success of previous conferences, there will be a significant and broad impact on the U.S. engineers attending the EMCC8. The first three EMCC Conferences have had major impacts in acquainting U.S., Turkish, Israeli, and Greek academics with their research interests and capabilities and in fostering research collaborations. The fourth, fifth and sixth conferences provided further opportunities by expanding the conference to include Italy, Bulgaria and Romania. The seventh outstanding conference in Greece also included participation from researchers from Saudi Arabia. These conferences have provided excellent forums for fruitful discussions on curriculum issues among faculty of the participating countries. In addition to the personal contacts that the U.S. participants will make with people from the other countries, it will be beneficial to U.S. interests to foster exchanges of research and teaching ideas and of personnel, and establish research collaborations between chemical engineers from the U.S. and chemical engineers from the Eastern Mediterranean countries. Significant efforts will be made to include both young and underrepresented faculty in the group of U.S. participants. It is also likely that recruitment of potential graduate students may occur informally, as in the past.