Kent State University will host the annual international conference of the Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter on May 16-18 at the Kent State University Hotel and Conference Center.
The conference will be broadly-focused on emergent phenomena in quantum, soft, biological and energy matter, with frontier talks by leaders in the fields, presentations by junior and senior scientists, a public lecture, poster presentations, and a Distinguished Dinner Lecture.
The institute was established in March 1999 at the University of California and Kent State has been a member of the Institute since 2003, but this is the first time it will host the event.
In 2002, ICAM became a multi-disciplinary research program at the University of California, with nine founding branches. In 2004, it received an award from the National Science Foundation to establish the International Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter (I2CAM) to continue and expand ICAM’s international scientific and educational activities. The international organization now consists of 72 branches — 35 in the United States, 17 in Europe, 14 in Asia, one in Canada, one in Australia, two in the Middle East, two in South America, and four partner institutions. Altogether, ICAM links 112 leading centers of complex materials research worldwide. ICAM’s programs include exploratory workshops, symposia, fellowships, and research and educational networks.
Since 2003, the Institute has awarded several one-half post-doctoral competitive fellowships to Kent State researchers, and funded multiple workshops, including several for the Glenn H. Brown Liquid Crystal Institute.
Kent State Physics Professor, Dr. Khandker Quader, led the effort to bring Kent State into the organization in 2003 and has been the university’s ICAM coordinator since then.
Quader said the university’s role as host of the conference not only gives Kent State a chance to show off its research facilities and faculty, it allows the university to form bonds that will further its research goals. “It is an in to collaborate with leaders in the field,” he said. “I’ve received great support from (Arts and Sciences Dean) James Blank, and I’m getting a strong response locally to participation in the conference.”
Blank, along with Research Vice President Paul DiCorleto will give the opening remarks at 8 a.m. on May 17.
The conference will welcome and feature speakers from all over the world, and some from Kent State, including Trustees Research Professor Oleg Lavrentovich (LCI) and Physics Post-Doctoral Research Associate Miroslaw Salamonczyk, as well as Physics Professor Hamza Balci.
The conference is sponsored by ICAM, National Science Foundation, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Division of Research and Sponsored Programs at Kent State University.
Register for the conference and view the itinerary at http://icam-i2cam.org/index.php/conferences/detail/2016_icam_annual_conference, and http://icam-i2cam.org/index.php/conferences/detail/2016_icam_annual_conference/registration.