Travel Support: XI Iberoamerican Conference on Phase Equilibria and Fluid Properties for Process Design, Equifase 2018

新的热力学数据和模型对于优化常规化学工艺的性能和开发新的能源效率和环境可持续的工艺至关重要。此外，热力学数据和模型是设计和制造先进材料的科学进步的核心。这笔赠款将为来自不同背景的美国初级教师和年轻研究人员提供部分支持，以参加第十一届伊比利亚-美洲工艺设计阶段平衡会议(EQUIFASE 2018)。大会将于2018年10月22日至25日在阿根廷科尔多瓦省卡洛斯·帕斯市举行。这次国际会议的目标是确定研究和教育方面的新机会，并促进与化工工艺设计和优化的基础数据有关的国际合作。这次会议的独特之处在于来自南美国家的研究人员和学生的广泛参与，提供了唯一一次将该社区的大部分人与国际社会的研究人员聚集在一起的会议。EQUIFASE 2018将专注于改进的热力学数据和先进的计算模型，以实现与能源转换和储存、化学加工、材料制造相关的工艺的优化设计，以最大限度地提高能源效率和环境可持续性。会议的学术价值包括：(1)确定传统流程工业和与能源、化学品、药品和生物化学品加工有关的流程强化新领域的关键挑战。(2)制定路线图，通过促进整合实验设计、分子建模和计算方法以及现代机器学习方法的合作来应对这些挑战。教育将是会议的一个关键议题，重点是远程教育和公开课方面的国际合作。这些年轻的与会者，其中许多来自STEM中代表性不足的群体，将受益于领先专家的最新审查和演讲，通过交流与分子热力学和化学过程有关的前沿研究课题的最新进展，以及通过与同行辩论有争议的观点。会议还将为学术和工业研究人员之间的互动和合作提供一个极好的机会。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

New thermodynamic data and models are essential for optimizing the performance of conventional chemical processes and for developing new energy efficient and environmentally sustainable ones. Furthermore, thermodynamic data and models are central to scientific advances in designing and manufacturing advanced materials. This grant will provide partial support for US-based junior faculty and young researchers from diverse backgrounds to attend the XI Iberoamerican Conference on Phase Equilibria for Process Design (EQUIFASE 2018). The conference will be held from October 22 - 25, 2018 in the city of Carlos Paz, in the province of Cordoba, Argentina. The goal of this international conference is to identify new opportunities in research and education and to promote international collaboration related to basic data for chemical process design and optimization. The conference is unique in the wide participation of researchers and students from South American countries, providing the only meeting that brings much of this community together with researchers from the international community.EQUIFASE 2018 will focus on improved thermodynamic data and advanced computational models to enable optimal design of processes related to energy conversion and storage, chemical processing, materials fabrication, to maximize energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. Intellectual merits of the conference include: (1) Identification of key challenges in conventional process industries and in new areas of process intensification related to processing of energy, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and bio-chemicals. (2) Development of a roadmap to address these challenges by promoting collaboration that integrates methods of experimental design, molecular modeling and computation, and modern approaches of machine learning. Education will be a key topic of the conference with focus on international collaborations in distance learning and open courses. The young conference participants, many from underrepresented groups in STEM, will benefit from state-of-the-art reviews and presentations by leading experts, by exchanging the latest advances on frontier research subjects relating to molecular thermodynamics and chemical processes, and by debating controversial points with their peers. The conference will also provide an excellent opportunity for interaction and cooperation among academic and industrial researchers.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.