A special session in the ASCE Engineering Mechanics Conference, June 13-16, 2004

Fluid Mechanics of Lakes and Reservoirs

The transport processes in lakes and reservoirs influence the overall ecosystem health through a variety of processes, including: distributing nutrients, replenishing dissolved oxygen in the hypolimnion, and transporting sediment plumes. This special session will include an invited presentation by Dr. Geoffrey Schladow of UC Davis ( http://edl.engr.ucdavis.edu/ ) discussing the recent field/modeling program that has provided insight into the physical processes that influence the conditions in Lake Tahoe. Encouraged contributions for this session include the wide range of fundamental and applied fluid mechanics and associated water quality impacts for lakes and reservoirs. All aspects of laboratory, field and numerical modeling research are welcome. Graduate students are particularly encouraged to present their work. An associated poster session will be arranged if there is sufficient interest. For further info on this special session, contact Ben Hodges.

The 17th Engineering Mechanics Conference

of the American Society of Civil Engineers

at the University of Delaware, June 13-16 2004

Conference web site:
http://chinacat.coastal.udel.edu/~kirby/EM2004/

Form of contributions:
Contributions may either be an extended abstract (3-4 pages) or a full length paper. Conference proceedings are a printed volume of abstracts and a CD-ROM of extended abstracts and papers. Copyrights on papers remain with the authors. Papers will be selected based on review of short abstracts (due Sept 30 - submit on conference web site)

One of the nice things about this conference is that it is actually only two and a half days of papers - the evening of Sunday the 13th is a reception, then papers are presented on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning - with sessions wrapping up by lunch on Wednesday. Thus, you don't lose a whole week for this conference. Another great thing is that all the fluids-related papers run in sequential sessions, so there are no conflicts and room-switching for people whose principle interests is fluids. In effect, the fluids/turbulence track is a "conference-within-a-conference," providing a smaller, more social, venue than the size of the overall EM conference might indicate. I found the 16th conference (in Seattle), to be a good place to get more extensive interaction with colleagues and their graduate students than some of the larger venues. The papers in the conference also tend to be more technical and (in my opinion) more valuable than some of the overview papers at many larger conferences. This is a really good conference for graduate students as the audience is relatively consistent through each session, which gives the students a better chance to meet and talk with professors and students from other universities (a much tougher task when there are 5 sessions in parallel). This conference also allows you to press your students to write a full paper instead of just an abstract! This conference is principally civil engineers, so it is also a good place for your students to get introduced to people whom they are likely to see when they're looking for faculty or post-doc positions. I would like you to consider making the ASCE EM Conference a routine place to meet with colleagues and get exposure for your students. It seems to me that civil engineers in fluid mechanics don't have a consistent place to meet - we variously attend the big ASCE meetings, as well as ASLO, AGU Ocean Sciences, Estuarine and Coastal Modeling, and a variety of occasional specialty conferences, which spreads us out kind of thin. This conference occurs every year, so if you miss a conference on occasion you don't have to wait two or four more years for it to roll around. The atmosphere is relaxed and friendly, and I think the students are able to get better feedback on their work than at many of the larger conferences. I hope to see you at the Univ. of Delaware!

Ben