15th Joint Workshop on Electron Cyclotron Emission and Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating

Dear EC-15 attendees,

The International Program Committee under Sante Cirant has finished its work and we now have completed the schedule for the meeting. Please check it online and let me know of any errors or omissions

Here is some general information.

ARRIVAL

If you come in to the Fresno airport, the conference has a room at the airport Holiday Inn where you can keep your bags and relax while waiting for the bus to the park. From the arrivals hall, walk to your right along a curved road about one block to the Holiday Inn. At the Inn, we have a parlor room, number 115, which is on the ground floor near an atrium. A representative of the workshop will be there to help you. The bus to the park will leave from the Holiday Inn at 15:00. You can rent a car at the airport, in which case it will be about a 2-2.5 hour drive to the park.

REGISTRATION

Registration will be open at the Yosemite Lodge beginning at 15:00 on Sunday afternoon and continuing until 19:00. You also may register later, but drink tickets and badges for the reception will not be available on Sunday after close of registration.

VENUE

Most of the workshop activities will be held at the Yosemite Lodge. The breakfast and break rooms are just steps away from the conference hall. The Yosemite Lodge bar, which conveniently doubles as the break room, will provide a charming environment for evening discussions.

RECEPTION

There will be a semi-hosted reception in the Cliff room at the Lodge beginning at 19:00 on Sunday evening for those who have made it to the Valley. There should be enough snacks that you won't need a separate dinner that night.

STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING

There will be a meeting of the ad hoc Steering Committee in the conference hall beginning at 19:30 on Monday. We will discuss the venue for EC-16 and any other relevant topics of interest. Interested parties are invited to attend.

BANQUET

The workshop banquet will be on Tuesday evening in the exotic Ahwahnee Hotel. There will be no host cocktails before the dinner in the solarium. After the dinner, two time Grammy Award winning guitarist Laurence Juber will entertain us with a solo guitar concert.

EXCURSION

The conference excursion will take place on Wednesday afternoon. There will be two options for this, a guided tour of the Yosemite Valley and a hike to the giant sequoia trees at Tuolumne Grove. The Valley tour will take you to many scenic places with fantastic views and interesting natural features. We think that the tour will end at the Ansel Adams photo gallery, where you will be shown many of the beautiful photos taken by this pioneer of landscape photography. For those wishing it, there also will be a chance to check the visitor center, where there is a film, and naturalists can add insight to the things you have seen. The tour to the sequoias will either be a simple hike or be done on snowshoes, depending on conditions. The trail is on a summer road, but at present there is about a meter of snow. It does get packed down, however, so hiking is often an option. There is an unusually large snowpack in the valley just now, so showshoes are a distinct possibility. Showshoes can be fitted over normal hiking shoes or light leather boots and we will decide what to recommend, snowshoes or hiking, early in the week. The hike to the trees is about 1.6 km each way with a 1 km loop trail in the forest. It is common for the temperatures to hover around freezing, so please bring something warm enough for that temperature range and in particular warm socks. The Yosemite Lodge accommodations are closely grouped with the conference site, the restaurant and bar, so you will not need sled dogs.

SPECIAL SESSION

There will be a special evening session on Wednesday featuring review talks by Don Melrose ("Electron Cyclotron Maser Emission From Astrophysical and Space Plasmas"), Fritz Leuterer ("Planning, Construction and Operating Experience of the Asdex Upgrade ECRH System") and Alan Costley ("ECE: The Story So Far").

CLOSING SESSION

The last session of the workshop on Thursday will include summaries of the four principal subject areas of the workshop, ECRH, Technology/Gyrotrons, Theory and ECE.

DEPARTURE

A bus will leave for the Fresno Airport at 8:30 on Friday morning.

INTERNET

The hotel was installing a completely new wireless internet system a month ago, which may mean that this service will be available.

PROCEEDINGS

The workshop will have a publications specialist at the meeting for the entire week. Please bring your camera ready copy to the conference and turn it in early in the week. We plan to try to have the proceedings nearly ready for publication by the end of the week. Please help us accomplish this.

POSTERS

Posters will be displayed on walls, therefore any format which fits in a square 1.5 m on a side, landscape or portrait will be acceptable.

FUSION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The archival journal Fusion Science and Technology will publish a special issue collection of refereed papers based on presentations at the workshop if there is sufficient interest. Papers for this issue must be enhanced over the papers published in the proceedings. Please make your submissions directly to the journal if you choose to do so.

EC-15 Program