24th PACIFIC COAST GRAVITY MEETING

Picture

University of California, Santa Barbara
March 21st-22nd, 2008


Jump to: Announcement - Talks -  Registration - Lodging - GGR Prize - Further Resources

Change of Venue

Change of Venue Due to the large number of registered participants, PCGM 24 has been moved to ESB 1001, The College of Engineering Large Conference Room in the UCSB Engineering Science Building. Look for ``Engineering Science" on the campus map. Engineering Science is conveniently located just next to Parking Structure 10 on Mesa Road in the north-east corner of campus, and is not far from the KITP. HOWEVER, visitor parking in PS 10 is limited to 4 hours. We recommend parking in Parking lots 12, 16, and 18. Daily parking permits for these lots may be purchased from dispensers in the lots. See campus map for detailed parking instructions.)

Please Note: There is a small chance that the conference will move back to the KITP (Kohn Hall) for SATURDAY ONLY. If this occurs, an announcement will be made at the conference Friday afternoon and will be posted on the website Friday evening. Persons not present at the Friday afternoon session may wish to check both locations Saturday morning. We apologize in advance for any confusion that may result.

Announcement

The 24th Pacific Coast Gravity Meeting will be held at the University of California, Santa Barbara, on March 21 and 22, 2008. In the tradition of the Pacific Coast Gravity Meetings, students and postdocs are strongly encouraged to participate, and all areas of gravitational physics---classical and quantum, theory and experiment---are welcome. We would like this meeting to serve as a communication medium among all branches of gravitational physics. We particularly encourage participants from the quantum gravity, string theory, experimental gravity, and astrophysics communities. Because this is a regional meeting, many participants will be from the Western United States, but all are welcome.

New for this year : PCGM has now grown to the point where we can no longer promise to accommodate all requests to speak. We therefore ask prospective speakers to submit a brief application via the registration form. To receive full consideration, applications should be received by Feb 22, 2008. Late applications will be considered at the discretion of the organizers. Priority for both on-time and late applications will be given to talks by graduate students and postdocs.

Talks

The meeting will follow the standard, very informal, format of previous PCGMs. There will be no plenary talks. Instead, all participants, especially postdocs and graduate students, are invited to contribute talks on their current research. All abstracts accepted will be allotted 10 minutes to speak plus 2 minutes questions. We expect the meeting to run from about 9am-6pm, both days. There will be no proceedings. Due to the change of room from KITP to the engineering building, talks will not be recorded and transparencies will not be put online.

NOTICE TO SPEAKERS
The many talks and tight time constraints of PCGM 24 allow little time for changeover between speakers. We therefore ask that speakers either
1) Give their talks using printed transparencies instead of computer projection
OR
2) E-mail the final .ppt, .pdf, or .ps version of their talk to by 5pm THURSDAY, March 20. In this case your talk will be loaded onto a UCSB laptop that will be brought to the conference room.
OR
3) E-mail by NOON on THURSDAY, March 20 to tell him that you will be giving a computer projected talk, and that you will bring a .ppt, .pdf, or .ps version of talk on a USB stick to the conference on Friday or Saturday in order to upload it onto a UCSB laptop.

The UCSB laptops will be available starting at 8:30 am Friday and during the breaks so that speakers can briefly check that their talk runs well on our laptops or, in the case of option #3 above, to upload their talks. Speakers should be aware, however, that there may be limited time to deal with any compatibility issues.

The talk schedule is now available. Speakers are adviced to check if their talk spot fits their constraints.


Registration

Registration is now officially closed. Late applicants can still complete the registration form. However, these applications will be considered at the discretion of the organizers.

Lodging

A block of 25 rooms at Best Western South Coast Inn is available for the attendees for the nights of March 20, 21, and 22 at the KITP rate of $115/night plus tax. Visitors may take their reservation by calling directly the hotel at (805)967-3200 (or toll free, 800-350-3614). People have until February 20 to make a reservation, and they should specify that they'll be attending the Pacific Coast Gravity Meeting. The KITP Visitor's Page lists alternative accommodations, as well as directions to the campus and information on what to wear. (The PCGM is not an "official" KITP event, however, so please do not contact KITP staff; send all inquiries to Geoffrey Compere, gcompere {at} physics.ucsb.edu, or directly to the hotel.)

Here is a map of the Santa Barbara area, with the locations of the Best Western marked. In addition, there is a detailed map of the area surrounding the University (Engineering Science is near the East gate), and a campus map (Engineering Science is in the north-east corner of campus next to Mesa Road and parking lot 10, section D5 on the map). A block of 25 rooms at Best Western South Coast Inn is available for the attendees for the nights of March 20, 21, and 22 at the KITP rate of $115/night plus tax. Visitors may take their reservation by calling directly the hotel at (805)967-3200 (or toll free, 800-350-3614). People have until February 20 to make a reservation, and they should specify that they'll be attending the Pacific Coast Gravity Meeting.

GGR Prize

A prize will be awarded for the best talk by a student at the meeting. 

Further resources:

For more information, contact Geoffrey Compère (gcompere {at} physics.ucsb.edu).