Travel Grant for Fourth Mediterranean Chemical Engineering Conference for Collaborative Research; Dead Sea, Israel, January 9-12, 2006

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ABSTRACT - 0544649This proposal is for travel funds for U.S. academic representatives to attend the 4th Chemical Engineering Conference for Collaborative Research Exchanges in the Eastern Mediterranean (EMCC-4) to be held at the Dead Sea, Israel, January 9-12, 2006. The participating countries are Turkey, Greece, Israel, Italy, Bulgaria, Rumania and the U.S. Academic chemical engineers from other Eastern Mediterranean countries will also be invited. The purpose of the Workshop is to update researchers from the participating countries with the state of the art of research in four areas of chemical engineering: Advanced materials and nanotechnology, Chemical process engineering, Biological engineering, andnTransport phenomena and separation processes, in order to catalyze collaborative research and contacts between investigators from the various countries. These areas were selected since they are critical technology areas in all of the participating countries. The major theme of EMCC-4 will be "Modes for Enhancing Collaborative Research" in Chemical Engineering. This is the fourth conference in this series. The three previous successful conferences were at the Technion, in Haifa, Israel in March 1999 with representatives from Turkey, Israel and the U.S.; in Ankara and Istanbul in May, 2001 with participation by chemical engineers from Greece as well as the other three countries; and in Thessaloniki, Greece in May 2003 with participation by the four participating countries.Prof. Moti Herskowitz from Ben Gurion University in Israel will be the Chair of the Conference. Three distinguished U.S. chemical engineers will be Plenary Speakers including Prof. Nick Abbott of the University of Wisconsin. In addition, twenty five U.S. speakers will be invited from the four areas, a blend of senior researchers and promising young investigators. There will also be keynote lecturers from the U.S. in each research area. Distinguished invited speakers from the other countries have committed to participate and approximately 20 speakers from each country will be invited to give oral presentations. There will also be poster presentations from these countries, some presented by graduate students. Special travel supplements will also be provided to 5 U.S. participants to visit and lecture in countries other than Israel-Turkey, Greece, Italy, Bulgaria or Rumania -- to develop and/or promote collaboration. Other US participants are expected to attend the conference with approval from the organizers and with support from other financial sources.The three previous EMCC Conferences have had major impacts in acquainting US, Turkish, Israeli and Greek academics with their research interests and capabilities and in fostering research collaborations. The proposed fourth conference will provide further opportunities, especially with the many Israeli researchers expected to attend. In addition, by expanding the conference to include Italy, Bulgaria and Rumania we will further expand the opportunities for collaboration between the participating countries. An added benefit of these conferences is the exposure they have provided for large numbers of graduate students from the Eastern Mediterranean countries to interact directly with both seasoned and young faculty researchers from the US and the other countries. In addition, these conferences have provided excellent forums for fruitful informal discussions on curriculum issues among faculty of the participating countries.Draft reports summarizing the activities in each research area will be prepared at the meeting by the U.S. leaders in each research area with the help of their counterparts from the other three countries and will then be circulated for editing and to prepare the final report. This report will be posted on a general EMCC Web Site to be developed. In addition, it is expected that about 30 papers from the proposed Conference will be published in Chemical Engineering Communications, as was done for the previous conferences.