GORDON RESEARCH CONFERENCE

"Research at High Pressure"



Kimball Union Academy -- Meriden, New Hampshire
Held June 21 - June 26, 1998


James Schilling, Chair
Washington University, St. Louis
Phone: (314) 935-6239
FAX: (314) 935-6239
Email: schill@howdy.wustl.edu


Isaac Silvera, Vice Chair
Harvard University, Boston
Phone: (617) 495-9075
FAX: (617) 496-5144
Email: silvera@physics.harvard.edu



Here is a Group Photograph kindly provided by M. Eremets from the 1998 Gordon Conference on "Research at High Pressure".


This is the old webpage for the 1998 Gordon Conference. Here is a link to the 2000 Gordon Conference on "Research at High Pressure".


About this Conference

The Gordon Conference on "Research at High Pressure" is one of the longest standing of all Gordon Conferences. It has almost always been held in the same location -- the Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire. The first conference, which was held on August 22-26, 1955, was chaired by A.M.H.F. Michels. Here is the Group Photograph from this first conference. The secret of this conference's vitality is that it has served as a forum for topics at the forefront of high-pressure research in many diverse areas, including Physics, Chemistry, Astrophysics, the Geosciences, and the Life Sciences. For the June 1998 meeting I made a particular effort to attract new attendees from all age groups. Two particular areas of emphasis in the conference program were: "Life under Extreme Conditions" and "Synthesis of Novel Materials". There were a number of areas of high current interest which could not be adequately scheduled in the oral sessions. Four of these areas, "Superconductivity under High, Very High and Extreme Pressures", "Hydrogen under Extreme Pressures", "Colossal Magnetoresistance", and "Advances in High Pressure Technology" received special emphasis in the poster session.


List of Invited Speakers

Life under Extreme Conditions

John Baross (University of Washington) - Temperature and Pressure Effects on the Growth and Physiology of Hyperthermophiles from Deep-Sea Vent Environments
Sol Gruner (Cornell University) - Pressure Effects on Biological Membranes and Proteins
Robert Hazen (Geophysical Labs) - High-Pressure Hydrothermal Organic Synthesis and the Origin of Life

Matter under Extreme Conditions

Neil Ashcroft (Cornell University) - Protons Adrift in a Fermi Sea
Reinhard Boehler (MPI, Mainz, Germany) - Ten Years of Laser-Heating in Diamond Cells: Research on Iron and New Developments
Paul Chaikin (Princeton University) - Organic Conductors and Superconductors
John Goodenough (University of Texas) - High-Pressure Studies of Localized to Itinerant Electronic Transitions
Yogendra Gupta (Washington State University) - Pressure Is Not a Sufficient Variable in Shock Wave Studies
James Jorgensen (Argonne National Labs) - Pressure-Induced Structural Transformations in the Negative Thermal Expansion Materials ZrW2O8 and HfW2O8: Insights into the Underlying Physics and Relevance to Applications
Stefan Klotz (Universite P & M Curie, France) - High-Pressure Neutron Studies to 25 GPa - Some Recent Results
Hilbert von Loehneysen (Universitaet Karlsruhe, Germany) - Pressure Tuning of Ground States in Heavy-Fermion Systems
David Mao (Geophysical Labs) - Diamond Cell with a Brilliant Side View
Paul McMillan (Arizona State University) - Growing Boron Icosahedra at High Pressure
Christoph Meingast (Kernforschungszentrum, Karlsruhe, Germany) - High-Resolution Thermal Expansion Measurements of Fullerenes and High-Tc Superconductors: an Indirect Probe of the Effect of Pressure on Solid-State Properties
Susumu Saito (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan) - Electronic Structure Analysis of Novel Materials by Pressure Synthesis: Properties, Energetics, and Materials Design
James Schirber (Sandia Laboratories) - Exotic Effects in Pressure-Intercalated C60
Eugene Stanley (Boston University) - The Puzzling Physics of Liquid Water and Amorphous Ice
David Stevenson (California Institute of Technology) - Unsolved Questions in the Material Properties of Planetary Interiors
Bertil Sundqvist (Umea University, Sweden) - Turning Soccerballs into Pearl Necklaces: C60 under Pressure
Yogesh Vohra (University of Alabama) - Synthetic Diamond Films and Crystals for Ultra-Pressure Materials Research -- New Challenges and Opportunities



List of Invited Posters


Superconductivity under High, Very High and Extreme Pressures

Kiichi Amaya (Osaka University, Japan) - Pressure Induced Superconductivity of Oxygen
Feng Chen (University of Houston) - Thermopower of HgBaCaCuO under Pressure
Anne-Katrin Klehe (Oxford University, England) - Shubnikov de Haas Measurements in Organic Metals
Mark Reeves (The George Washington University) - The Effect of Pressure on the Non-Linear Response of Superconductors
Viktor Struzhkin (Geophysical Labs) - Measurements of the Superconducting Tc in the Megabar Pressure Range
Hiroki Takahashi (Nihon University, Japan) - The Effect of Pressure on Several New Superconductors
Joerg Wittig (Institute for Transuranium Elements, Karlsruhe, Germany) - Search for Anomalies in the Superconducting Tc of an Americium-Doped Lanthanum Alloy under Pressure
Jinhua Ye (National Research Institute of Metals, Japan) - Pressure Effect on Superconductivity and Structure of PrBa2Cu3O7-x

Hydrogen under Extreme Pressures

Jon Eggert (Colorado School of Mines) - Ortho-Para Conversion and Diffusion in Solid Hydrogen at Pressures up to 60 GPa
William Evans (Lawrence Livermore National Labs) - Optical Determination of the Equation of State and Index of Refraction of Hydrogen and Other Cryocrystals
Russell Hemley (Geophysical Labs) - Spectroscopic Studies of Hydrogen to Multimegabar Pressures
Gunnar Weck (Universite Paris VI, France) - Raman and Structural Studies on Solid O2 above 100 GPa: New Insights on Metallic Oxygen
Hitose Nagara (Osaka University, Japan) - Frequencies of Raman and Infrared Active Vibrational Modes and Structures of Solid Hydrogen at Megabar Pressures
Chandrabhas Narayana (Cornell University) - Hydrogen at 342 GPa: Still the Reluctant Alkali
William Nellis (Lawrence Livermore National Labs) - Metallization of Fluid Hydrogen
Sandro Scandolo (International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy) - First-Principles Calculations of Solid Hydrogen

Colossal Magnetoresistance

Yuri Sushko (NEC Corporation, Japan) - High Pressure Effects in Colossal Magnetoresistance Manganite Tl2Mn2O7 and Other Geometrically Frustrated Pyrochlores

Advances in High Pressure Techniques

Shoichi Endo (Osaka University, Japan) - A Magnetic Measurement under High Pressure in Pulsed High Magnetic Field
Michael Hanfland (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble, France) - High Resolution X-ray Diffraction at High Pressure: the Need for Stress Relief

Other Topics

Mohsen Abd-Elmeguid (University of Cologne, Germany) - Pressure-Induced Transition from 4f to 3d Magnetism in EuCo2P2
Christian Cros (Institut de Chimie de la Matiere Condensee de Bordeaux, France) - High Oxygen Pressures and the Stabilization of Unusual Oxidation States of Transition Metals
B.K. Godwal (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay, India) - Electronic Topological Transitions in Elemental Solids and Compounds
Wilfried Holzapfel (University of Paderborn, Germany) - X-ray Diffraction on Liquid Ga under Pressure
Hubert King (Exxon Research Labs, Annandale, New Jersey) - Pressure-Induced Polymer Chain Collapse for Water Soluble Polymers: an Analogue for Protein Denaturation?
Brian Maple (University of California at San Diego) - Pressure Dependence of the Electrical Resistivity of Ce- and Yb-Filled Skutterudites LnT4X12 (Ln = Ce, Yb; T = Fe, Co; X = P, Sb)
Moshe Pasternak (Tel Aviv University, Israel) - The Ultimate Fate of the Magnetic State in High Density Matter. The Collapse of Hund's Rule versus the Collapse of Correlation
Daniel Sanchez-Portal (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain) - Conductance in Nanometer Metallic Contacts under High Uniaxial Strains
Guenther Sparn (Max-Planck-Institut, Dresden, Germany) - Effect of Pressure on Superconductivity and Quantum Critical Phenomena in Heavy Fermion Compounds
Yasujiro Taguchi (University of Tokyo, Japan) - Critical Behavior in LaTiO3+x/2 in the Vicinity of the Antiferromagnetic Instability
Guangtian Zou (Jilin University, China) - Ferroelectric Phase Transition of Nanocrystalline Materials under High Pressure



Poster Session

The poster session is an especially important part of this Gordon Conference and includes both invited and contributed presentations. Due to the large response, two consecutive poster sessions were scheduled. Prospective conferees wishing to present a contributed poster on their work should please e-mail a title and a very brief abstract to both Isaac Silvera and James Schilling. Since the poster session is now essentially full, only particularly outstanding "postdeadline" contributions will be considered.

Conference Timetable

The scientific sessions at the conference will begin on Sunday, June 21, 1998 at 7:30 pm. There will be five evening sessions (7:30 - 9:30 pm) and four morning sessions (9:00 am - 12:30 pm). All afternoons are free for informal discussions, hiking, sight-seeing or other recreation. The conference ends Thursday after the evening session which follows the traditional Lobster Dinner.

Travel to the Conference Site

The most convenient ways to travel to the conference site at the Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire, are to either take one of the Gordon Conference Chartered Buses or use a rental car. The present schedule calls for the chartered buses to leave from Terminal D Lower Level at Boston's Logan International Airport on Sunday, June 21, 1998 at 12:30 noon and 3, 5 and 7 pm. The trip to the conference site takes about 2-3 hours. Conferees should take one of the first two buses, if at all possible, so as not to miss dinner at 6-7 pm or be late for the first scientific session beginning promptly at 7:30 pm on Sunday. The Charter Bus leaves Kimball Union for Logan International Airport at 9 am Friday morning, June 26, 1998. Detailed instructions on how to travel to and from the Kimball Union Academy can be found on the Gordon Conference Web Page. This website also gives complete information on Kimball Union, including maps of the campus and surrounding area as well as photos of the conference facilities.

Application/Registration

If you are interested in attending this Gordon Conference, you should apply immediately. The easiest way to apply is to fill out an on-line Application Form on the Gordon Conference website. An application form can also be copied from p. 315 of the October 10, 1997 issue or from the Feb. 27, 1998 issue of the journal Science. Registration materials are sent to successful applicants directly from the Gordon Conference Office. The rates for registration after June 1, 1998, including full room and board from Sunday afternoon to Friday morning during the conference, are $560 for a double room or $615 for a single room).

Jamieson and Van Valkenburg Awards

The Jamieson and Van Valkenburg Awards are given at each conference to young, promising scientists in the field of high pressure research. Besides the honor of the award, the recipient receives both a check to help support his/her attendance at the conference plus the opportunity during the conference to give a short talk highlighting his/her research. The award presentations will begin at 7:45 pm on Sunday, June 21.

The winner of the Van Valkenburg Award for this conference is Dr. Katsuya Shimizu from the Department of Materials Physics at Osaka University, Japan. His talk, which will begin at 7:45 pm on June 21, is titled "Electrical Measurements to Mbar Pressures with a Diamond Anvil Cell".

The winner of the Jamieson Award for this conference is Dr. Sandro Scandolo from the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy. His talk, which will begin at 8:15 pm on June 21, is titled "Computer Experiments in High Pressure Physics".

History of the Gordon Conferences

The Director of the Gordon Research Conference, Dr. Carlyle B. Storm, is undertaking a project to put together a history of all previous Gordon Conferences. He is interested in receiving information about major discoveries reported for the first time at GRC's as well as historic photos and other items of interest. Bill Bassett has volunteered to assemble information pertaining to the high-pressure conferences and would be delighted to receive any photos, reminiscences, or notes that you might have. In August 1999 Bill established a website Gordon Research Conference on Research at High Pressure - a History at which you can view the conference photographs from 19 previous conferences.

Conference Site -- Kimball Union Academy

The 1998 GRC on Research at High Pressure was held at Kimball Union Academy which is located in Meriden, New Hampshire. During the academic year Kimball Union is a traditional co-educational boarding school with 280 students. It is reserved for Gordon Conferences during the summer months.

The Academy's two gymnasiums provide volley ball, basketball and weight lifting, while soccer, tennis or softball are available outdoors. For those looking to cool off, trips are provided to canoe the placid waters of the Connecticut River or stay on campus and take a dip in the Academy's pool or swimming hole located under Meriden's famous covered bridge. Visitors to Meriden will enjoy dozens of miles of hiking trails located on the Kimball Union campus and elsewhere within the village. The trail system ranges from relatively flat country lanes to more challenging terrain that will afford the hiker spectacular views of the entire upper valley region. Quiet country roads provide an excellent venue for cyclists as well. The busy nearby towns of Hanover and Lebanon are the perfect complement to Kimball Union's rural setting and provide shops for everything from fast food to antiques. Dartmouth college is just twenty minutes away as well. Complete information on Kimball Union, including maps and photos of the facilities, as well as detailed instructions on how to reach the conference site, can be found on the Gordon Conference Web Site.

Gordon Conference Soccer Match

The Thursday afternoon soccer match has become a tradition at this Gordon Conference. In previous years the student team, consisting mainly of the dining hall waitresses, played against the conference participants, with a predictable outcome. In 1996, however, lacking sufficient student personnel, the HP participants were forced to play against each other, the Megabars versus the Milli-Megabars - again, with a predictable outcome; unfortunately, the standard of play reached an all time low. In the 1998 soccer match every effort will be made to restore balance and reestablish fairness on the field. Regrettably and unexpectedly, the valiant HP soccer team suffered a loss playing against the GRC staff team. Our coach, Ike Silvera, has promised a thorough review of this matter before the next meeting. In this photo you see Ike valiantly coaching his losing team.

Other Items of Interest

Meet the Chairs of the present conference (Jim Schilling) and the past conference (Dieter Hochheimer) after a strenuous climb up a mountain in New Hampshire near the conference site. Meet the Vice Chair of the present conference (Ike Silvera).

Here is the group photo from the 1981 International Symposium on the Physics of Solids at High Pressure which Robert Shelton and I coorganized.

Harry Drickamer is seen here in a discussion with the father of modern high-pressure research and technology Percy Bridgman at the 1960 Gordon Conference. Professor Bridgman was not only interested in high-pressure research, but wrote eloquently on matters of general interest in the Physics of his day, as evidenced by Arnold Sommerfeld's personal copy of a reprint by Bridgman on "Permanent Elements in the Flux of Present-Day Physics" published in the journal SCIENCE in 1930.

Here is the High-Pressure Periodic Table of Superconductivity according to Bernd Matthias.


High Pressure Job Market

Because of its informal atmosphere and the considerable free time available in the afternoons, a Gordon Conference is the ideal setting for impromptu discussions and establishing new contacts. This can be of value for those searching for, and those seeking to fill, open positions. To facilitate the communication in this regard, the Chair is attaching to this webpage a section High Pressure Job Market which contains information both from job seekers and job offerers. Both conference participants and members of the high-pressure community in general are welcome to participate. Please send the Chair via Email a single paragraph of not more than 100 words length which he can copy directly onto the "High Pressure Job Market" webpage. At the conference there will be a poster board dedicated to this purpose; interested participants should bring a half-letter-sized advertisement and attach it themselves. The website Jobpage will be left up for a year or two after the meeting.

Other Conferences of Interest

The Geosciences Conference Interior of the Earth will take place June 28 - July 3, 1998 at the New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire. The conference will be chaired by Mike Gurnis (California Institute of Technology).

The High Pressure Semiconductor Physics (HPSP) VIII Program Eighth International Conference on High Pressure Semiconductor Physics will take place August 9-13, 1998 at the Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece. The conference will be chaired by Prof. S. Ves (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki).

A conference on High Pressure Bioscience and Biotechnology will take place August 30 - September 3, 1998 in Heidelberg, Germany. The Conference will be chaired by Horst Ludwig (University of Heidelberg).

The XXXVI Meeting of the European High-Pressure Research Group on Molecular and Low Dimensional Systems under Pressure will take place September 7-11, 1998 in Catania, Italy. The Conference will be chaired by Renato Pucci.

The Workshop on Crystallography at High Pressure using Synchrotron, Laboratory X-Ray and Neutron Sources, and Related Theoretical and Experimental Research will take place November 14-17, 1998 at the Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois, USA. The conference will be chaired by John Parise (State University of New York).

Mailing Lists, Suggestions or Comments

Announcements about the program and Conference will be made primarily by e-mail. If you would like to be included in our mailing list, please send your name, address, and e-mail address to James Schilling .

Suggestions and comments are always welcome.

Last modified on September 20, 1999