SOR '09 Report

I attended this year’s Society of Rheology Meeting in Madison, WI last week. It was my first meeting since the 2005 meeting in Lubbock, TX and my first meeting as a representative of ConAgra Foods. Here is a list of this year’s sessions…

1. Biorheology and Rheology in Biological Systems

2. Emulsion, Blends, and Multiphase Systems

3. Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics and Stability
4. Gels, Glasses, and Jammed Systems
5. Industrial and Complex Systems Rheology
6. Microrheometry and Microfluidics
7. Molecular Modeling and Simulation in Rheology
8. Self-Assembled Systems and Interfacial Rheology
9. Suspensions and Colloids
10. Polymer Solutions and Melts
11. Viscoplasticity and Soft Solids
12. Local chair PDA: iPhone (minimum memory 16 GB)

Because of my current interests, I concentrated on presentations that discussed food. There were 9 presentations with the word “food” in the abstract, and I was able to attend 8 of them; two talks had a conflict. (This system was flawed; I missed a talk on dough rheology because the authors did not use the word “food” in their abstract.) Generally speaking, the food-related talks discussed extensional techniques, as those techniques can be directly applied to processing, including food processing.

I heard from several people that the Society would like to improve its outreach to industry. They held a roundtable discussion on industrial jobs. Because of my schedule, I was not able to attend. If any readers would like to share their experience, either leave a comment or send me an email. (As shown below, outreaches to industry are not new; the ’99 meeting also had a session on industrial rheology.)
Being a small meeting, the trade show was also small. Exhibitors included Anton Paar, TA Instruments, Malvern Instruments, ATS RheoSystems, and Thermo Haake (all the standard rotational rheometer manufacturers), Formulaction, Brookfield, Stony Brook Scientific, AIP, Xpansion Instruments, and RheoSense Instruments.

(comparisons to older meetings after the jump)

Thanks (again)

So far, about twenty people have found the blog.  It took about six weeks before the first visitor stopped in.
I hope to resume my normal posting schedule soon, publishing new posts Sunday evening (U.S. time).  I'll even try a poll or two.

Tracking Google (Update)

One month ago, Google searches like "rheology blog" and "rheology blogger" weren't catching this blog.  It's now prominently displayed, so I guess there's no hiding.

Thanks

I'd like to thank John for linking to this blog and also thank everyone who stopped by this week.  I just got back from the SOR Meeting, and I'll be posting on that soon.  Right now, I'm trying to put at least one entry up per week, and that usually happens on Sundays.
Talk to you later!

A Limerick

Inspired by the poetry page referenced below, here is a limerick inspired by lab work this week…


In my lab I work with food.
I'm often in a good mood.
But a service report,
Of the rheometer sort,
Has me singing songs that are blued.

Rheology Research Center

This year's Society of Rheology meeting starts tomorrow in Madison, WI. The University of Wisconsin has a many professors who research different areas of rheology. Some of them have banded together to form the Rheology Research Center. For some rheology-based entertainment, stop by the poetry page to view works by Professors Bird and Lodge.

Jobs Report (October)

On October 3rd, there were 30 jobs found on Monster.com using the keyword "rheolog*"  Back in September, there were 24 jobs listed on that web site.