Interdisciplinary transport phenomena. Preface

INTERDISCIPLINARY TRANSPORT PHENOMENA

Preface

Achieving important scientific breakthroughs increasingly requires interdisciplinary collaborative research among diverse scientists and fields. This is certainly true of the study of transport phenomena—the various mechanisms by which particles or quantities move from place to place. Indeed, transport phenomena are ubiquitous to many areas of research, including thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, biological and materials sciences, as well as space technology. The vast base of knowledge encompassing interdisciplinary research in these areas necessitates that we share our individual expertise across traditional scientific boundaries so that we can forge ahead with projects based on collective knowledge and experience. With the broad goal of furthering even more interdisciplinary research, we are continuing with this very successful series of conferences on transport phenomena, where we hope to share our ideas for healthy new research programs. In order to tackle the challenges of interdisciplinary research in transport phenomena, we require active interaction in forums where scientists with a wide variety of backgrounds and expertise may identify current issues and contribute new ideas. Besides assembling as individuals with diverse scientific backgrounds, we need to willingly experiment with new and unorthodox ideas and to adaptively interact with each other. The promise of future success in research of transport phenomena lies in recognizing new challenges through interdisciplinary activity and pursuing ideas across traditional disciplines. The Interdisciplinary Transport Phenomena (ITP) Conference Series is indeed intended to be a set of forums to stimulate intense discussions for a better understanding of the scientific principles that apply across research disciplines. With the present volume we hope to continue with these themes and, at the same time, provide the transport phenomena scientific community with an outlet for disseminating research results. We are grateful to all of the participants of this volume, whose time and effort in putting together high-quality scientific papers is greatly appreciated. We also acknowledge and thank Linda Mehta (acquisitions editor of the Annals) for recognizing the scientific strength of our collective effort, and working with the executive staff at the New York Academy of Sciences to give us the privilege of publishing the conference papers in the Annals after peer review. We also thank Douglas Braaten, director and executive editor of the Annals, for oversight of this project; Steven Bohall and Ralph Brown, who dealt with the intake of manuscripts and volume production; as well as Carol DiPalermo for painstakingly proofreading the typeset manuscripts. Our sincere thanks go to Professor Frank Schmidt whose support in the capacity of the technical liaison for Engineering Conferences International (ECI) has led to the necessary endorsement from the ECI since the inception of this conference series. This conference was organized by the University of Southern California (USC) and the Rostislaw Kaischew Institute of Physical Chemistry (IPC, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), in partnership with ECI. The institutional support from both USC and IPC is highly appreciated. Thanks are also due to Patrick Phelan for financial support from Interdisciplinary Transport Phenomena: Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1161: ix–x (2009). C 2009 New York Academy of Sciences. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04713.x


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the U.S. National Science Foundation. We are very grateful to members of the local organizing committee at IPC (Michail Michailov, Anita Penkova, Feyzim Hodzhaoglu, and Ivaylo Dimitrov) for putting in significant time and energy and making the conference a success. Finally, the conference organizing committee is grateful to various members of the scientific committee who provided valuable help in organizing the conference. SATWINDAR SINGH SADHAL, Editor University of Southern California Los Angeles, California DAVID M. ECKMANN, Associate Editor University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania CHRISTO N. NANEV, Associate Editor Institute of Physical Chemistry, BAS Sofia, Bulgaria HARUHIKO OHTA, Associate Editor Kyushu University Fukuoka, Japan REGINALD W. SMITH, Associate Editor Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada