The sessions of the conference will begin on Monday morning (Sept. 5) at 8:30am and end by the end of day on Friday evening (Sept. 9). On Monday evening, there will be a special session on nuclear data along with a reception. Tuesday evening is the poster session. We ask all poster presenters to be ready to hang their posters on arrival. There will be a prize of $500 awarded to the best poster presented by a postdoctoral fellow or a graduate student. A selection committee of 3 distinguished scientists will be judging the posters. The prize is funded by Prof. Steven Yates of Kentucky University for CGS-12 in honor of the memories of Jean Kern and Raman Subramanian (Founder’s Award) and it will be awarded at the banquet. The conference banquet will take place on Wednesday Sept. 7 aboard a ship and will include an architectural tour of the city of Chicago from the Chicago River. Thursday evening, conference participants are invited to the “Physics and Film” series hosted by JINA (Joint Institute of Nuclear Astrophysics), the Department of Physics, and the Performing Arts Center of the University of Notre Dame). Friday evening, there will a performance of music, poetry and stories by the Ensemble Galilei with projected images from the Hubble Space Telescope.

We have also arranged for a number of exciting events for accompanying persons, including private tours of the new Performing Arts complex at Notre Dame, tours of the collections at the Snite Art Museum, a visit to Fernwood botanical garden and nature reserve (Eight acres of beautiful gardens are tucked into a scenic valley along the St. Joseph River, completely surrounded by forest. There are miles of trails to explore. Indoors, visitors enjoy the nature center, fern conservatory, café, gift shop, and art gallery.), and a visit to Amish Country nearby. However, we need to know in advance the number of participants interested in these activities. Please let me know as soon as possible.