Support for Student Travel for the Spring 2018 Technical Meeting of the Eastern State Section of the Combustion Institute

This award is to partially support the travel expenses of graduate and undergraduate students in attending the 2018 Spring Technical Meeting of the Eastern States Section of the Combustion Institute. This conference, to be held at the Penn State University, is a gathering of combustion researchers in academia, industry, and government from the East Coast region of the United States. The technical program of the conference consists of a series of plenary lectures, contributed oral presentations, and information social gatherings. Experiences in attending technical conferences are extremely beneficial to students. These experiences will not only help with the students' professional development, but also stimulate their critical thinking in formulating future research directions.

Because of its effect on energy conversion and environmental quality, the understanding of combustion processes and practical combustion systems is of paramount importance to society. Exchange of information at conferences increases the rate at which research breakthroughs can be made to make combustion more efficient and cleaner with fuel-flexibility. A particular focus of this conference is on graduate and undergraduate students by providing an opportunity for these students to present and get feedback on their research. This award will be used to offset the travel expenses of non-local students in an effort to increase student participation at the meeting, particularly students from underrepresented institutions that may not have the financial means to fully support student travel to conferences.