2004 Annual Conference- Biggest and Best Yet! Things are winding down after one of the largest AAAR meetings ever! This year, we had more than 700 conference attendees, 242 oral presentations, 361 poster presentations, and 38 late breaking posters. The high quality of our technical program was mainly the result of the efforts of the technical program committee, which includes the working group and symposium chairs. These hardworking folks did a great job, from promoting the conference to drum up excellent abstracts, putting together exciting sessions, and, in the home stretch, working with me to minimize gaps in the program. Thanks everyone! We had 421 tutorial attendees, including the student session assistants who attended tutorials in exchange for volunteering their time. Thanks to Mike Bergin for putting together this year's tutorial program! We continue to increase our number of exhibitors, with 25 this year. Thanks to Tom Merrifield for his efforts to boost exhibitor participation. Thanks go also to our plenary speakers. What a way to start the day! Behind the scenes, the Association Headquarters staff did a great job, and special thanks go to Rebecca Storti, our fearless Meeting Manager as well as Susanne Hering and Donald Dabdub for their efforts to ensure the abstract submission and publication process went smoothly. The 1-minute poster previews continued this year, and, with the help of our session chairs who gamely took on the responsibility of compiling the files beforehand, and the student session assistants, things ran smoothly for the most part. The membership committee initiated two activities with the goal of increasing the feeling of 'connectivity' amongst our members: an international-themed dinner, and a discussion session for early career aerosol researchers. Sponsorship for the conference continues to increase, with the Electric Power Research Institute, Southern Company, the International Society for Aerosols in Medicine, the EPA, Eli Lilly, TSI, NOAA, and Quant Technologies contributing a total of more than $30,000 towards conference expenses. Their generosity helped to improve the quality of the meeting, while keeping the increase in registration fees to a minimum. Most importantly, this year as in past years, poster and oral sessions were extremely well-attended, and all available tables and chairs were filled with people involved in animated discussions, (mostly about science), between sessions, at the receptions, during lunch breaks, and into the evenings. This continues to be the premier meeting for those engaged in aerosol research and I am happy to have been a part of it. Best wishes to next year's conference planners! See you in Austin in 2005! Sheryl Ehrman |
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