The distinguished external advisory panel to the Consortium of the Americas for Interdisciplinary Science, will be visiting UNM on Thursday-Friday, Feb. 19-20, to participate in a daylong scientific workshop and to give advice to the Consortium Director and other UNM officials on future directions of the Consortium.
The Consortium, a center in UNM’s College of Arts and Sciences and directed by Nitant Kenkre, professor, physics and astronomy, is characterized by interdisciplinary science and international collaborations. It was recently awarded a three-year, $1 million grant by the NSF to further international collaboration of scientists in the United States with scientists from Latin America to perform high caliber research in interdisciplinary science with linkage to education (http://www.unm.edu/news/Releases/03-09-19kenkre.htm ) The Consortium is the first international science center to be supported in this manner by the International Division of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
“This is an important event for UNM,” said Kenkre, “The advice and recommendations of the External Advisory Panel will help shape future directions of the Consortium. The Consortium represents one of the most important international science initiatives of UNM.”
The Consortium concept is based strongly on UNM’s Strategic Plan and is supported at all levels at UNM including the Office of the Provost, specifically as it relates to the Provost’s initiative on the New Mexico Circle on Sovereignty and Sustainability.
The visiting panel consists of internationally known distinguished scientists including several members of the National Academy of Sciences and several Fellows of the American Physical Society.
The panel members are: Alan Bishop, director of the Theory Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory; Leo Kadanoff, John D. MacArtur Distinguished Service Professor in Physics and Mathematics, University of Chicago, winner, National Medal of Science; Katja Lindenberg, associate director of the Institute for Nonlinear Science, University of California at San Diego; Alan Newell, professor, University of Arizona and the University of Warwick (U.K.); Moyses Nussenzveig, mathematical physicist and optical scientist from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, member, Brazilian Academy of Sciences; and Robert Silbey, dean of the School of Science, MIT, member, National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Harold Stolberg, who is the NSF program monitor for the Consortium grant, will also attend.
On Feb. 19, the scientific workshop (http://panda.unm.edu/consort/Feb19-2004.html), which will be held in the Acoma Room in the Student Union Building, will feature talks by five panel members, and two UNM professors. The panel members will give interdisciplinary talks ranging from “Theory of Optical Tweezers” to “Theoretical Studies of Single Molecule Spectroscopy” to “Strongly Correlated Electronic Matter: the Role of Elasticity.”
Brown, a noted UNM biologist and ecologist, and Distinguished Professor, will discuss “A Metabolic Theory of Ecology,” while Brinker, a UNM professor in chemical and nuclear engineering, and member, National Academy of Engineering, will present a talk on “Self Assembly of Nanostructures.”
Posters of the scientific research of Latin American visitors to the Consortium will also be on display on various interdisciplinary topics ranging from “Mathematics of Opinion Formation” to “Microscopic Origins of Solid-solid Friction” and “Theory of the Spread of the Hantavirus Epidemic.”
The scientific workshop is free and open to the public.
On Feb. 20, the panel and other members of the scientific community, will meet with various members of the UNM administration as well as with a number of Latin American scientists from Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico who are currently visiting the Consortium.
Contact: Steve Carr (505) 277-1821
Posted by kwentworth at February 13, 2004 04:19 PM