Conference: Keeping the Fire Alive: Fostering a Sustainable Community in the Combustion Sciences

该提案旨在支持2023年3月19日至22日在德克萨斯州农工大学举行的美国国家燃烧会议期间举行的三项外联活动。这些活动包括燃烧研究人员的早期职业研讨会，导师混合器和燃烧午餐中的女性。这些活动的目标是将早期职业燃烧研究人员聚集在一起，并建立行动委员会，以鼓励早期职业参与燃烧研究社区。在美国，近70%的能量转换是通过燃烧完成的，因此，燃烧科学的进步对美国的能源安全和社会至关重要。研讨会的参与者将制定四个高度优先的项目，包括公共宣传，建立富有成效和包容性的研究小组文化，教育和实践社区，以及应对COVID-19大流行后的研究挑战。研讨会的结果将记录在一份报告中，该报告将分发给更广泛的技术界。燃烧是发电的一项关键技术，在未来几十年内将保持不变。然而，燃烧研究界正面临着各种技术和非技术挑战。与会者将确定挑战，教育有关这些挑战的早期职业研究人员，并讨论可能的解决方案。围绕技术问题的讨论将包括对未来工作的新的、可能跨学科的研究领域进行头脑风暴。另一方面，还将讨论各种非技术问题，包括与公众和政策制定者的沟通，以及吸引和留住来自不同背景的优秀研究人员。本次研讨会的成果预计将有助于建立一个更有成效的燃烧研究社区。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

This proposal is to support three outreach activities held during the U.S. National Combustion Meeting, March 19–22, 2023, at Texas A&M University. These activities include an Early Career Workshop for Combustion Researchers, a Mentorship Mixer, and a Women in Combustion Luncheon. The goal of these activities is to bring together a community of early-career combustion researchers and develop action committees to encourage early-career participation in the combustion research community. In the U.S., nearly 70% of energy conversion is accomplished by combustion—hence, advancement in combustion science is crucial to U.S. energy security and society. Workshop participants will develop four high-priority items, including public outreach, building productive and inclusive research group cultures, and education and communities of practice, and navigating research challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Workshop findings will be documented in a report that will be disseminated to the wider technical community.Combustion is a key technology for power generation, and this will remain the same for decades to come. However, the combustion research community is facing various technical and non-technical challenges. The participants will identify challenges, educate the early-career researchers about these challenges, and discuss possible solutions. Discussion around technical issues will include brainstorming of novel, possibly cross-disciplinary research areas for future work. On the other hand, various non-technical issues will also be discussed, including communication with the public and policymakers and attracting and retaining talented researchers from diverse backgrounds. Results of this workshop are expected to help build a more productive combustion research community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.