PACRIM12 with GOMD feeds attendees in mind and body

[Image above] Food provided during the poster session and eaten with this view of the resort. Tuesday, May 23. Credit: M. Ahmadzadeh

By Mostafa Ahmadzadeh

Washington State University

Aloha!

My name is Mostafa Ahmadzadeh. I’m a 3^rd-year P.hD. candidate at Washington State University, working on glasses and glass-ceramics for applications in nuclear waste vitrification. I have also completed my master’s and bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering with an emphasize on nanoceramic materials.

I have attended the Glass and Optical Division Annual Meetings (GOMD) since I started my Ph.D. studies as it is a perfect fit to my current research area. That being said, I strongly believe GOMD2017 was even a better opportunity to learn as it was combined with the 12^th Pacific Rim conference on ceramic and glass technology (PACRIM 12). I think combining them was a great idea as I believe glasses and ceramics are inseparable members of the same family in materials science, and the conference perfectly covered all the hot topics in this broad area. Because my Ph.D. research is mostly on glasses, I mostly get to attend glass-related meetings. But at this meeting, I also learned about new topics in ceramic technology relevant to my master’s research by attending some of the PACRIM talks.

As usual, GOMD included a variety of talks relevant to my area of research, which was very informative in terms of giving me an idea what is going on in the glass research and industry all around the world. It was also a great experience presenting my work to many professionals in the area of my research from all over the globe. It always feels encouraging to get compliments on my presentation and research.

I liked the poster session, which has an advantage over talks because you can just walk around and look at different work in a glance, and go more deeply in the interesting or relevant ones. In other words, I can get more information in relatively shorter time.

As a student, the most important opportunity that I had in this conference was meeting scientists and researchers in person, who I otherwise could only meet on LinkedIn! They are usually willing to talk and exchange ideas at the conference, even though they hadn’t responded to messages on LinkedIn! Participating in this conference could lead to an effective network with professionals in the industry, bridging the transition from university studies to employment in ceramic and glass companies. I met a few researchers from Corning and got the chance to go to some of their presentations to see what is currently going on at this prestigious company.

I am already familiar with how to publish data after getting several works published. However, the publishing workshop was helpful gave me the chance to discuss with the chief editors on why and how to become a journal reviewer. I am determined now to take my next step through my publishing work and review relevant papers to further expand my knowledge and experience in the field.

Additionally, as many of our collaborators were present in the conference, we were able to have a very practical meeting discussing our future collaborations. This would not be possible if we didn’t get together through this conference.

Below are a few pictures related to my experience at PACRIM12, taken from my camera’s eyes!

Editor’s note: Ahmadzadeh is a recipient of an NSF-funded travel grant to attend PacRim12. The award was made to Surojit Gupta of the University of North Dakota.