Northwestern University is hosting the Diffusion Fundamentals XI conference from June 30-July 2 (2025) in Evanston, Illinois (USA).
This event, “Spreading in Nature, Technology, and Society” will bring together a highly interdisciplinary group of scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and social scientists interested in diffusion and related spreading phenomena.
The topics will include basic principles of diffusion theory and simulation; experimental measurements and applications in biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering; and spreading phenomena in archaeology, ecology, epidemics, linguistics, sociology, and other disciplines.
Around 60 participants are expected, hailing from the US, Abu Dhabi, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.
The 2025 edition of this biannual conference is being organized by Randall Snurr, John G. Searle Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering; Daniel Abrams, Professor of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics; Matthew Grayson, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Niall Mangan, Assistant Professor of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics; and Todd Gingrich, Assistant Professor of Chemistry.
The phenomenon of diffusion occurs in many systems of technological importance, such as mixing, catalytic reactors, and membranes for energy-efficient separation of mixtures. Snurr, who is a Corresponding Member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig (Germany), notes that “the same framework can also be applied to understand the spreading of ideas and concepts, diseases, languages, plants, and animals. The conference aims to bring together researchers from these different fields to explore connections among the different phenomena described by similar underlying mechanisms.”
Monica Olvera de la Cruz, the Lawyer Taylor Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering, will deliver one of the keynote lectures, titled “Dynamics of Simple and Complex Electrolytes in Confinement.” Julio M. Ottino, Distinguished Robert R. McCormick Institute Professor and Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, will deliver a pre-dinner talk, titled "Determinism, Chaos, and Probability: Newton, Poincaré, and Maxwell.”
Along with Northwestern University, the conference is co-sponsored by the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig, Germany.
Further information
Conference website
https://diffusionfundamentals11.org/
Conference Location on Open Street Map:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/16505176#map=17/42.053623/-87.674224
Please note that the time given follows the local time of the venue: UTC/GMT -5 hrs.