Conference: 2025 Micro and Nanoscale Phase Change Phenomena Gordon Research Conference and Seminar

This award partially supports the 2025 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and associated student-run Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on Micro and Nanoscale Phase Change Phenomena to be held in Sheraton Fairplex Hotel & Conference Center, Pomona, California on January 11-17, 2025. As the fifth conference in the series, this GRC under the theme of Phase Change Phenomena in a Decarbonizing World will feature a diverse group of speakers and discussion leaders from institutions and organizations worldwide, with talks that concentrate on the latest developments in the field and define its most promising future directions.

The goal is to present the latest in fundamental research, build the research community in the general area of micro and nanoscale phase change, inspire meaningful applications in decarbonization, and recommend on the most promising future research directions. The venue provides a unique forum where graduate students, postdoctoral associates and other junior researchers can interact informally with established members of the field.

Early-career researchers will also be able to present their work, interact with each other, and participate in mentoring activities during the associated GRS, organized and run entirely by students and postdocs, as well as through poster presentations at the GRC. The GRC “Power Hour” is a forum designed to address challenges faced by women and all underrepresented groups in science and to discuss issues such as unconscious bias and overcoming barriers to inclusivity, as well as to provide mentoring to junior female scientists.

Processes involving phase change are critically important in a wide variety of electrification and decarbonization technologies. This GRC and associated GRS are focused on fundamental mechanisms governing phase change processes and how these mechanisms interact to prescribe how component technologies and systems can be designed and run in a decarbonizing world.

Topics within the conference include processes occurring at the three-phase contact line, the thermodynamics and kinetics of phase change materials and thermochemical energy storage media, the design of materials and surfaces using advanced manufacturing techniques that can control phase change, advances in the simulation and numerical modeling of phase change processes, machine learning and artificial intelligence methods for characterizing and predicting phase change mechanisms, new and novel experimental methods for measuring the extent of phase change, and phase change processes occurring in novel refrigerant working fluids relevant to decarbonization. The 2025 GRC will bridge this gap between heat transfer experts and other scientists from important relevant disciplines.

In addition, the significant time allotted for discussions within the GRC structure will foster collaborations amongst diverse researchers to rapidly accelerate understanding and provide a unified knowledge base. Early-career and established researchers in the field alike will be encouraged to participate in the talks and poster sessions, which will enhance their diversity and intellectual capacity.

We anticipate that by fostering this multidisciplinary research community, the GRC will become the premier meeting in micro and nanoscale phase change processes.

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.