ELGRA Biennial Symposium
and General Assembly
In the Spirit of Discovery
Rome Vatican City 11th-14 th September 2013
| Deadline for Submission of Abstracts: | April 15, 2013 |
| Notification of acceptance: | June 15, 2013 |
| Early Registration: | June 30, 2013 |
Organization
| Scientific/Organising Committee (ELGRA Management Committee) | Local Organising Committee |
| Prof.Dr. Valentina Shevtsova: President | Monica Monici |
| Dr. Monica Monici Vice-President | Felice Strollo |
| Prof.Dr. Floris Wuyts: General Secretary | |
| Dr. Kurt Kemmerle : Treasurer | |
| Thamas Podgorski (member) | |
| Prof.Dr. Jack Van Loon (member) | |
| Carole Leguy (member) | |
| F. Javier Medina (Special Advisor to the Management) |
Full contact for local organizers:
Monica Monici |
Felice Strollo |
Organizing Secretariat
Francesca Cialdai and Leonardo Vignali
ASAcampus Joint Laboratory, ASA Research Division,
Dept. of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences,
University of Florence,
Italy,
Tel.: + 39 055 4271216; francesca.cialdai@unifi.it
Traditionally, the ELGRA Symposium is a forum for scientific and technological reports in gravity dependent and space related research. Abstracts in the fields of life sciences, biotechnology, physiology, physical and material sciences, fluid physics, and other (micro-)gravity related topics are welcome.Abstracts may be submitted via the symposia link on the website www.ua.ac.be/elgra
Topics:
Life Sciences
The human body and long lasting missions
Adaptation of cells and biological tissues to long-term conditions of altered gravity
Psychological and behavioural aspects in long lasting missions
Life support systems
Moon and Mars environments
Countermeasures
Soft matter mechanics of living cells
From science to health
Physical Sciences:
Material sciences
Fluid physics
Plasma physics
Others:
Ethical aspects in space exploration
New opportunities from commercial suborbital flights
Artificial gravity and simulation
Dust in space
From Science to Philosophy
Student Contest
As every Symposium, ELGRA will establish a program to support student attendance and organize a student contest. More information will be provided, in due time, on the ELGRA web site: www.elgra.org
download the announcement for students
download the application form for students
Submission Guidelines
One-page abstracts (A4) for oral or poster presentations are invited from now on. The participation of students is particularly encouraged
 |
The authors presenting oral communications and posters are requested to prepare full manuscripts, which will be submitted for publication in a special issue of Microgravity Science and Technology |
Registration Form
The deadline for early registration is 30 June 2013. You register via the 'Registration Form'. For ealry registration you also need to send in the Payment Form (see below).
Conference Fee
| Registration fees in Euro's (€) | Early* |
Late |
| ELGRA members | 320 |
350 |
| Non-ELGRA members | 420 |
450 |
| ELGRA membership+registration | 420 |
450 |
| Students | 190 |
210 |
| Accompanying persons | 190 |
210 |
You may download the Payment Form in either MS-Word format.
The registration fee includes access to scientific sessions, coffee breaks and lunch every day and the symposium dinner.
List of hotels in Rome: download the list
Please book your hotel as soon as possible. Rome is very crowded with tourists in September!
Venue
Rome, the 'Eternal City', is the capital of Italy and of the Lazio region. It's the famed city of the Seven Hills, La Dolce Vita, and Three Coins in the Fountain. The Historic Centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, hosting many monuments and what all people are mostly attracted by, i.e., the ancient area with the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Forum of Augustus, the Forum and Markets of Trajan, the Capitoline and its museums. But around and close to that, visitors will appreciate how’s life like in the centre of the Roman medieval and Renaissance periods, with beautiful squares, cathedrals, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Campo de' Fiori, the Jewish Ghetto neighbourhoods and, northwards, the Villa Borghese, the Spanish Steps and their elegant neighbourhoods.
Rome is also where the Vatican City has its location with the Papal City State and its endless treasure troves of sights, relics, and museums, as well as the surrounding Italian Vatican area.
As ELGRA we are really proud to be hosted inside the Vatican City this time, so that we will be able not only to take a close glance to the Vatican Museums and the Gardens, which are not too easy to see as laymen, but also to take advantage of 2013 being the “year of culture” to establish fruitful contacts with the cultural Institutions within the Vatican.
These few lines would never be able to list all you could do or see in Rome before and after the congress, so we invite you to see these wonders yourself and breath Rome’s evening Ponentino wind through these places still waiting for being admired.
Social Program
The organization of social activities is in progress. The following events have been already scheduled:
September, 11th – Dinner in Vatican City. The Dinner will take place in a wonderful setting, with view on the Sistina Chapel and Vatican Gardens. We recommend to take this unique opportunity (price 50 euros/person).
September, 13th – Symposium Gala Dinner on the Nemi Lake, on the hills around Rome (this event is included in the Symposium fee).
The Nemi Lake, in latin Nemorensis Lacus, is a small circular volcanic lake. It is very famous for its sunken Roman Ships, which were very large and technologically advanced for their time.
The Nemi Ships were built by the Roman emperor Caligula in the 1st century AD. There is considerable speculation regarding why the emperor Caligula chose to build two large ships on such a small lake.
The larger ship was essentially an elaborate floating palace, which contained quantities of marble, mosaic floors, heating and plumbing such as baths among its amenities. Both ships featured technology long thought to be recent inventions.
The ships had lain on the bottom of the Lake for over nineteen hundred years, were salvaged in what was perhaps the greatest underwater archaeological recovery ever accomplished. One of the most fascinating aspects is the fact that knowledge of the two huge vessels being in the lake had never been lost throughout the ages, from the reign of Caligula, to the twentieth century. There were several attempts at salvage carried out at various times, most of which resulted in degradation of the wrecks and plundering of artefacts. Finally, in 1930 they were ashore and housed in a museum on the lake where they were the object of many studies. The museum is actually open but, unfortunately, the ships were fired during the Second World War, it is supposed, by the german soldiers retreating.
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