Harry Petschek Symposium on Magnetic Reconnection

A symposium on magnetic reconnection is being held at the University of Maryland University College in the honor of the late Harry Petschek, one of the fathers of this important topic in laboratory, space and astrophysical plasma. The symposium will feature invited talks and posters addressing:

The history of magnetic reconnection research
Magnetohydrodynamic and kinetic reconnection theories
Observations of magnetic reconnection in the space and the laboratory
Magnetic reconnection in astrophysical systems
The future of magnetic reconnection research

J. Drake (University of Maryland)
M. Hesse (Goddard Space Flight Center)
R. Torbert (University of New Hampshire)

J. Birn (LANL)
T. Forbes (University of New Hampshire)
M. Hoshino (University of Tokyo)
C. Russell (UCLA))
G. Siscoe (Boston University)
J. Stone (Princeton University)
Kh. Trattner (Lockeed-Martin)
E. Vishniac (Johns Hopkins University)
M. Yamada (PPPL)

The workshop will be held at the University of Maryland University College Inn and Conference Center on March 21-23, 2006. A conference dinner in honor of Dr. Petschek will take place on Wednesday, March 22, 2006. Parking is available on site and is covered by the registration fee. The meeting room will have both a viewgraph machine and a LCD projector.

Please mail the completed registration form with a check for the $300 conference fee by February 3, 2006, to:

Harry Petschek Symposium
IREAP
Bldg. #223
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742

After this deadline the registration fee rises to $350. Please indicate on the registration form the title of your poster presentation if you wish to present a poster. The registration fee covers the Wednesday conference dinner, breakfast and lunch for the three days of the meeting, refreshments during breaks and parking.

Both invited speakers and those presenting posters should e-mail a one page abstract in pdf format to J. Drake by March 3, 2006. The abstracts are posted on the conference web site.

The list of registered participants along with e-mail addresses can be found here .

A Schedule for the meeting is now posted on the web site. Note that there is ample time allocated for discussion.

We have reserved a block of rooms on site at the Inn and Conference Center. The room rate is $159 per day for either single or double. There is no lodging tax at this facility, only a local sales tax of 5%, so the effective room rate is lower than indicated by the daily rate. The Inn and Conference Center is a much nicer facility than nearby hotels, which are typically located on a busy street (U.S. Route 1). There is free internet access in each of the guest rooms. There are still rooms available at the conference rate. Please send an e-mail message to Leyla Lugonjic and mention the Harry Petschek Symposium to receive the meeting rate.

There are additional hotels close to the UMCP campus. At least two of them, the Quality Inn (phone: 301-864-5820) and the Best Western Maryland Inn (301-474-2800) offer University discounts. You need to mention that you are attending a workshop at the University of Maryland when you call to reserve your room. More information about local hotels can be found at http://www.cvs.umd.edu/visit/accomodations.html.

How to get College Park from the airport? We have three airports with different transportation options. Dulles is the furthest away and therefore the least convenient. From Dulles you can take the Washington Flyer Coach Service ( http://www.washfly.com/ ) to the West Falls Church metro station and go to the College Park metro station. The second option is Reagan National Airport. You land in the center of DC and take the advantage of direct access to the metro line. The third airport, BWI, has no metro access but has regular shuttle van transportation to any of the College Park hotels.

Breakfast and lunch are on-site and are included in the conference fee as is the conference dinner on Wednesday evening. The Garden Restaurant is part of the conference center and therefore the most convenient for dinner on other evenings. A list of other local restaurants can be found here. Most of them require some driving.

In case of any other questions please contact Jim Drake (phone: 301-405-1471) or Michael Hesse (phone: 301-286-8224).