ICR2016 is Over (?)

The 17th international congress on rheology, the largest meeting for rheologists world wide, took place in Kyoto Japan from Aug 7th to 13th, and I was in charge of secretary. It was a really tough event, but I had a lot of fun as well. Concerning my own activity, I submitted 6 papers mainly owing to the collaborations with the researchers outside. (Due to the rule of ICR, only one oral presentation is allowed from one attendee. Thus 5 of my 6 papers were presented by my collaborators.) For this specific meeting, I hesitated to encourage students to submit papers because the student registration fee was super-discounted. This means that, if our students joined the event, it caused a financial damage. Of course, the financial support for students in any kind of meeting is just normal. But in this particular case, as the secretary, I should manage the finance for foreign students.

The event was a great fun to me with many friends coming from many countries. The photos taken in the event are available in the official facebook page. Something very special in the event was the costume playing in the Uzumasa film studio in which the typical Japanese wearings in Samurai period can be enjoyed. With Prof. Taniguchi in Kyoto University, I was the guard of Vise-Shogun (known as Komon-sama) to whom Prof. Masao Doi played. The photo is available here. Because I was the secretary, I was in the spotlight in some occasions (i.e., the opening chat for the Uzumasa event, for example). One of my friends told me that I am now very famous for all the rheologists worldwide like a move star. (She was joking of course.)

On the other hand, the preparation and the backyard tasks were very heavy. We started the preparation a few years ago, and from last April the schedule was very tight. The most difficult (and of course delicate and important) part to me was the scientific programming. We had around 500 papers and 18 sessions. Although 13 rooms were available in the conference hall, it was difficult to put all the things somewhat consistently. During the conference, I could not attend most of the talks because there were many small (but important) problems. For such problems, students from the laboratories in Kansai-area made great jobs. Prof. Katashima and Prof. Doi (Doi the younger, not Masao Doi) were the real force. KNT international business branch was the Excalibur with which any kind of problem was automatically solved (or problem was eliminated before I observe).

For the statistics of the conference, I made the conference report that is available here and will be published later on the journal of Applied Rheology.

Finally, on behalf of the organizing team, I greatly appreciate the contributions from the attendee, and the financial supports from the private sector.

However, the conference is not completely over. We are still working on several things. Nevertheless, we can relax somehow, I hope.