\n

Now and again I am surprised when I run across a scientist who has not heard of the Gordon Conferences.<\/p>\n

Imagine a site filled with other specialists in your general field, and being \u201choled up\u201d with most of these people for nearly a week, during which time you are able to see presentations on research that hasn\u2019t yet been published. The atmosphere is often informal, and if it\u2019s a good Conference, it\u2019s not very \u2018clique-y\u2019 either. And cheap\u2014food, lodging, it\u2019s all included for a very small price. Often, there are funds for students and young scientists as well to help defray or cover the costs of attending a Conference.<\/p>\n

Conferences require an application for attendance, so make sure to apply sooner rather than later, many popular conferences can reach capacity very quickly.<\/p>\n

Schedule of Gordon Conferences are usually in the same format: morning-to-lunch presentations, then a break in the afternoon for whatever (collaboration\/discussion is encouraged) and then dinner. After dinner, a few more presentations and then a relaxed social hour (beer and chat) afterwards. You get to rub elbows with some great scientists, from grad students, to postdocs, research scientists and faculty. You\u2019ll run into people you might consider legends that you wouldn\u2019t normally expect a chance to meet in such informal surroundings. You come away eventually with a set of \u201cGordon Conference Stories\u201d\u2014often funny experiences or amazing conversations that are the start of something bigger.<\/p>\n

More importantly, you\u2019ll get some insight into some great new research (which you cannot discuss in public without permission as it is unpublished). Tradition says that the dinner on the last evening is a seafood (lobster) dinner, but don\u2019t quote me on that.<\/p>\n

Please, do yourself a favor if you haven\u2019t looked yet, and visit The Gordon Conference Website<\/a> where you\u2019ll find the 2007 and 2008 list of conferences. The conference list changes every year as many conferences are on an every-other-year schedule.<\/p>\n

There is also a special issue of Science magazine every year devoted to the Gordon Conferences.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some down-sides too. The Conferences can keep costs down by hosting in schools\/colleges. Sometimes the food is rather ordinary, and the sleeping arrangements\u2014completely depending on the hosting site\u2014might be a dorm bed. There might be shared bathrooms. There might not be air conditioning at every site. That\u2019s not to say all sites are inconvenient. Some sites are fantastic, and there are usually local hotels for those who don\u2019t like a certain site.<\/p>\n

Also, many conferences are populated by people who have known one another for years. Don\u2019t be afraid to talk to people, let them know who you are, introduce yourself around. If you plan on staying in the field that the Conference covers, these people will likely become some life-long colleagues.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll guarantee you\u2019ll find some of the best intellectual experiences you\u2019ll ever have.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now and again I am surprised when I run across a scientist who has not heard of the Gordon Conferences. Imagine a site filled with other specialists in your general field, and being \u201choled up\u201d with most of these people for nearly a week, during which time you are able to see presentations on research<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confluxion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confluxion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confluxion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confluxion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confluxion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.confluxion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.confluxion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions\/15"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confluxion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confluxion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confluxion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}