Collaborative Conference: Thermal Transport Café - A Virtual Gathering for the Thermal Transport Community

Thermal Transport Café (TTC) is a virtual community gathering on a regular basis to keep the thermal transport research community innovative and connected. The TTC series launched in Fall 2020 in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic that disrupted academic interactions and limited the exchanges of ideas and collaboration. This is particularly detrimental to junior faculty as they build new collaborations and seek research mentorship.

The TTC gathers every month for one and half hours including junior faculty presentations and mentoring sessions. The Junior Faculty Session consists of research presentations, questions and answers, and breakout rooms for brainstorming and discussions. The Mentoring Sessions are held between every two consecutive junior faculty sessions with topics selected from a junior faculty survey on academic and life challenges.

Special panels to invite industrial partners, government agency representatives, and national lab personnel are planned. Graduate and postdoctoral research expos will highlight the next generation of faculty in the community. Twelve junior faculty sessions and four mentoring sessions have been organized during the pilot phase of the TTC, where over 60 junior faculty and 40 senior faculty have been actively participating.

This project will support the TTC in the post-pandemic era to build collaborations, nurture junior faculty, foster innovations, and grow the thermal transport community.

The TTC brings together thermal transport scientists around the world to foster scientific discoveries and explore future directions of thermal transport research, with a focus on promoting junior faculty and nurturing the next generation of researchers. The technical presentations feature junior faculty provides a platform for in-depth questions and constructive feedback.

The mentoring sessions focus on important and timely topics identified by junior faculty surveys. The TTC helps to build a culture of resource sharing and open collaborations. The TTC sessions will be recorded and shared in a YouTube channel.

A dedicated TTC website will be developed and maintained where the latest news of the research community will be disseminated. The TTC is committed to enhancing the diversity, equity, and inclusion in thermal transport community.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.