Invitation from Dr. Kiril Petkov

First Announcement
Second Announcement, updated January 27, 2005 !

Registration Form
PROGRAM OF THE SYMPOSIUM, TRYAVNA, June 15-19, 2005

Up-dated March 12, 2004

Cocoa Beach, Florida, USA, Nov. 7-12, 2004.
Mark your calendars now ! The XIVth INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON NON-OXIDE GLASSES will be held in Cocoa Beach, Florida, November 7-12, 2004. Meeting details (routinely updated) for this, and other ACerS meetings can be found at the web site:  www.ceramic.org/meetings//glass2004/default.asp

Dear Colleagues,
To serve as a general update on the status og the 14-th ISNOG to be held in conjunction with the American Ceramic Society's Fall Glass and Optical Materials Division (GOMD)meeting this year, we are proceeding with our planning and I wanted to provide you with a summary of the current status of the meeting. The two meetings will be held together as part of the week-long Conference, November 7-12, 2004 in Cocoa Beach, Florida. I am working hard with my GOMD co-chair, John Ballato of Clemson University, to coordinate a seamless meeting, which not only presents the highlights of research in both oxide and non-oxide materials, but addresses education and training issues that are important to our discipline. These additional sessions and workshops we see as especially important to our future glass scientists, our students. Some initial details on the meeting program, housing travel, abstract submission (due May 1-st) can be found available at the site mentionned above.
Our approach to organizing this meeting is to minimize the delineation between the two meetings with all sessions being nonspecific to oxide and non-oxide glass, optical materials, or manufacturing. In addition to the traditional topical areas for both meetings, we have also incorporated into the program special symposia, especially intended for students but open to all, on: - Ethics in Science (especially for students) - Entrepreneurship in Optics - The Future of Optical Materials - Issues in Intellectual Property (for students and researchers) as well as special sessions, for awards and presentations for: - Charles R. Kurkjian Symposium on the Mechanical Properties of Glass, a festschrift in honor of Chuck's 75-th birthday. - 2004 George W. Morey Award lecture, recognizing new and original work in the field of glass science and technology - 2004 Norbert J. Kreidl Award for Young Scholars presentation - 2004 Ovshinsky Award for Excellence in Non-Crystalline Chalcogenides - Outstanding Young Researcher Award, presented to a scientist under 40 years old, for outstanding contribution to Non-Oxide Glass Research (ISNOG) - Outstanding Student Poster Award
We plan to publish papers in a peer-reviewed journal (being finalized now) with papers submitted prior to the meeting, and reviewed by attendees, on site. As this is routinely done for ISNOG, but not usually for GOMD attendees, we will open the Proceedings up and solicit contributions from all attendees. We have identified an editorial committee who will coordinate the effort as it is quite time-consumming. Assistance from you in the review process will be critical to us successfully getting submissions turned around in a timely manner. We are especially aiming to have the Proceedings published within 6-9 months as this is often considered a drawback to authors contempalting manuscript submission.
We are strongly encouraging attendance by and participation of students, and are working to ensure a reduced student registration., lower cost housing options, and specifically raising funds to support student travel. Additionally, our student poster contest will offer a venue for students to present their findings, and a cash prize will be awarded for Outstanding Student Poster Presentation. Details on these and other awards will be forthcoming.
We have already asked many of you for your assistance in organizing a technical session, serving on our Proceedings editorial board, participating in fund raising or some other function for our meeting. I have yet to identify coordinators for our many specific awards, but will shortly. If we have not approached you and you are interested in helping with a specific contribution, John and I would welcome your participation. Our hopes are that with your leadership, our meeting will follow in the strong tradition set forth in prior ISNOG meetings.
I look forward to your comments, feedback and most importantly, involvement in our meeting. Lastly, I look towards seeing you in Florida this fall.

Warm regards
Kathleen Richardson, Conference Chair 14-th ISNOG
Kathleen Richardson, e-mail:kcr@creol.ucf.edu