Travel Grant for Fifth Mediterranean Chemical Engineering Conference

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Proposal Number: CBET: 0744337Principal Investigator: Steven CramerUniversity: Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteTitle: Group Travel Grant for Fifth Mediterranean Chemical Engineering Conference (EMCC-5) to be held in Cetraro Italy, May 24-28, 2008.This project provides travel funds for U.S. academic representatives to attend the 5th Chemical Engineering Conference for Collaborative Research in Eastern Mediterranean (EMCC-5) to be held in Cetraro Italy, May 24-28, 2008. The participating countries are Turkey, Greece, Israel, Italy, Bulgaria, Rumania and the United States. 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 six areas in chemical engineering: Multiscale modeling: from molecular to process engineering; sustainable and intensified processing; chemical- and bio- engineering for energy; biomaterials and bioprocesses for health care; water purification, reclamation and reuse; and nanostructured and functionalized materials for products and processes. These areas were selected since they are critical technology areas in all of the participating countries. The major theme of EMCC-5 will be "advanced new frontiers for chemical engineering in an evolving world". This is the fifth conference of a series. The four previous successful conferences were at the Technion, in Haifa, Israel in March 1999 with representatives from Turkey, Israel and the U.S.; in Ankara (Middle Eastern Technical University) in May, 2001 with participation by chemical engineers from Greece as well as the other three countries; in Thessaloniki, Greece in May 2003 with participation by the four participating countries; and at the Dead Sea, Israel in January 2006 with participation from Italy, Romania and Bulgaria as well as the other four countries. Prof. Enrico Drioli from the Institute on Membrane Technology (ITM-CNR) at the University of Calabria (Rende, Italy) will be the Chair of the Conference. The US EMCC coordinating committee consisting of Steve Cramer (Rensselaer), Nick Abbott (Wisconsin) and Alex Katz (Berkeley) will work with area leaders Peter Cummings (Vanderbilt), Ray Gorte (Penn), Menachem Elimelech (Yale) and Bill Bentley (Maryland) to organize a first class group of approximately 25 U.S. presenters who will be invited from the six research areas. This will include a blend of senior researchers and promising young investigators. Distinguished invited presenters from the other countries have committed to participate and approximately 20 investigators from each country will be invited to give oral or poster presentations. Poster presentations by graduate students will also be included in the program. Special travel supplements will also be provided to five US participants to visit and lecture in countries other than Italy- Israel, Turkey, Greece, 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. Broader Impact: It is expected based on past conference results that there will be a significant and broad impact on the US engineers attending the next EMCC conference. The first three 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 fourth conference provided further opportunities, by expanding the conference to include Italy, Bulgaria and Rumania. An added benefit of these conferences is the exposure they have provided for large numbers of graduate students from the Eastern Mediterranean to interact directly with both seasoned and young faculty researchers from the U.S. and the other countries. In addition, 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. It is also likely that recruitment of potential graduate students may occur informally, as in the past.