The gordon research conferences take place on a number of frontiers in research areas every years and the conference in the same area is organized every two years. They were started by Professor Neil E. Gordon in 1930s. Therefore, these confernces carry a long hostory with them. The GRC-2009 in Atomic Physics was organised from June 28-July 03 at Tilton Shcool, Tilton, New Hampshire.
More than 150 participants incuding twenty plus speakers were present in the conference. The speakers were the top researchers in the field from around the world. About a 100 posters were presented on current researches in two sessions. Most of the talks and posters were from the experimentalists on the subject but there were some atomic physics theorists too to give talks and present posters. The talks were on variety of disciplines of Atomic physics - Bose and Fermi gases, atomic reactions in ultra cold environments, formation of qubits using atomic ions, etc. A day started with breakfast at 7:30 A.M. and ended with a social from 10:00 P.M. - 12:00(midnight) or so. I was so surprised to see that the frontier research scientists work all the time no matter whether they are in a meeting hall or in a dining table or in a social or wherever they are !
There were a lot of indoor and outdoor extra activities too in the free time like hiking, rafting and kayaking. Unfortunately, because of the weather, we could not do outdoor activities. Most of the week was spent on campus, attending the conferences, presenting poster, chatting, working on computers and eating and drinking.
I can not stop myself writing on the quality and quantity of foods in the conference. It was the place where you could eat anything of your choice and any amount you would want. It was really great. The conference staffs in the kitchen and everywhere were so friendly and helpful. We spent a very good time in overall in the GRC-2009 in Atomic Physics at Tilton School !
