first circular

Two years after Diffusion Fundamentals II in L'Aquila, Italy, and as part of the celebration of the 600^th anniversary of the foundation of Leipzig University, the cradle of the Diffusion Fundamentals Conference series in 2005, the world-wide community of researchers in the field of diffusion is invited to Athens, Greece, to highlight current developments.

Diffusion Fundamentals III is organized under the auspices of the National Technical University of Athens, the National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos”, and the University of Leipzig. Again, the conference will consist of invited plenary talks and poster sessions, where both chairmen and plenary speakers are encouraged to refer extensively to the posters relevant for their session. Following the tradition, a Conference Volume with local paintings by Taro Ito will be issued. Simultaneously, all conference contributions shall be available electronically via the Diffusion Fundamentals Online Journal.

The scientific programme includes invited plenary talks, covering those topics of diffusion theory, experiment and application, which are in the focus of current research. The talks will address a broad interdisciplinary audience within the wide-stretching field of diffusion, including the presentation of

• Diffusion in Nanostructured Solids, Nanoporous Materials, Polymers and Living Cells
• Diffusion Analogues in Social Sciences and Ecology,
• Multiscale Simulation of Mass Transfer Phenomena,
• Novel Insights by Novel Measuring Techniques .

So far the following plenary speakers have accepted our invitation:

Christoph Bräuchle, München		Klaus Kroy, Leipzig
Mark Conradi, Saint Louis		Alexander V. Neimark, Piscataway
Benny Freeman, Austin		John H. Petropoulos, Athens
Ulrich Gösele, Halle		Graeme E. Murch, Newcastle
Keith Gubbins, North Carolina		Douglas M. Ruthven, Maine
Paul Heitjans, Hannover		Randall Q. Snurr, Evanston
Jörg Kärger, Leipzig		Sir John M. Thomas, Cambridge
Walter Kob, Montpellier

Each group of plenary talks shall be accompanied by poster sessions. Ideally, the contributions to the poster sessions should be related to the various aspects covered in the plenary talks. Correspondingly, the plenary speakers and the chairpersons of the sessions shall be asked to serve as first reviewers of the poster submissions and shall be encouraged to refer to individual posters during their presentations, whenever appropriate.

Again, to reach as many (in particular young) researchers as possible, the conference is planned as a low-cost conference (participation fee between 200,- € and 300,- € aspired, depending on the level of sponsorship, with a reduced fee for students), which implies to rely on information exchange by www as extensively as possible. The conference fee comprises catering during the conference, the social programme, including Gala Dinner, and the Conference Volume.

With its rich cultural heritage, impressive monuments, and charming natural landscape, the city of Athens is an ideal venue for a conference in August. The conference will take place in the Emmantina Hotel (www.emmantina.gr), in Glyfada, by the coast of the Saronic Gulf. Conferees will be housed in the Emmantina and nearby Palmyra Beach (www.palmyra.gr) hotels, in a quiet seaside location easily accessible from the bustling centre of Athens by bus and tram and from the Athens airport by bus.

Posters
Authors are requested to send their two-pages abstracts via the Internet before March 15^th, 2009. Please, follow the format as given under http://diffusion.uni-leipzig.de/pdf/layout-poster-abstracts.doc since only if this format is followed may the contribution be included in the Conference Volume.

Important Dates

Conference Chairmen: Christian Chmelik, Leipzig; Nick Kanellopoulos, Athens;
Jörg Kärger, Leipzig; Doros Theodorou, Athens

Scientific Committee:

Dezsö L. Beke, Debrecen		Stefano Brandani, London		Armin Bunde, Giessen
Paul Callaghan, New Zealand		Alan Chadwick, Canterbury		Marc-Olivier Coppens, Delft
Gerhard Ertl, Berlin		Dieter Freude, Leipzig		Farida Grinberg, Leipzig
Paul Heitjans, Hannover		Jörg Kärger, Leipzig		Yossi Klafter, Tel Aviv
Alfred Leipertz, Erlangen-Nuremberg		Graeme Murch, Callaghan		Douglas M. Ruthven, Orono
Jean Philibert, Paris		William S. Price, Sydney		Doros Theodorou, Athens
Michael J. Saxton, Davis		Gunter Schütz, Jülich		George H. Weiss, Bethesda
Ilpo Vattulainen, Helsinki		Gero Vogl, Vienna

Organizing Committee Athens: Nick Kanellopoulos, George Papadopoulos, George Romanos, Doros Theodorou

Organizing Committee Leipzig: Christian Chmelik, Tomas Binder

Email: info@diffusion-fundamentals.org


A poster announcing the conference may be found under http://diffusion.uni-leipzig.de/pdf/diff-fund-III.pdf (pdf, 0.3 MB).