by Rossana Pasquino, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Naples, Italy
The Annual European Rheology Conference (AERC) took place in Sorrento, Naples, Italy from 17 – 20 April 2018. It was organized by Profs. Mario Minale, Giovanni Ianniruberto and Stefano Guido, together with a young local committee affiliated with the University of Naples Federico II and the University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”.
It was a great success in terms of participation as well as scientific quality and breadth of topics covered. More than 600 abstracts were submitted, 570 delegates attended the conference, and roughly 140 papers from groups outside Europe were presented. More than 95 students attended the Rheology course “Particles, Active Matter, Confinement and Viscoelasticity: the microfluidics playground”, taught by Pier Luca Maffettone, Amy Shen and Julia Yeomans.
The conference was organized into seven parallel sessions and twelve symposia, covering the main topics of interest in the rheology community, from classical blends such as suspension and polymer melts to geofluids and living matter. Three plenary speakers (Mike Cates, Michel Cloitre and Fred MacKintosh) presented outstanding work of particular interest to the conference delegates. AERC 2018 was sponsored by a range of companies (TA Instruments, Anton Paar, Malvern Panalytical, ExxonMobil and Mario Penati Strumenti). Various exhibitors (TA Instruments, Anton Paar, ThermoFisher, Incipientus, Bruker, LS Instruments, Malvern Panalytical, Springer) displayed their products at the main entrance of the venue for the whole period of the conference. The best posters and oral communications were awarded prizes thanks to the kind support of Procter & Gamble, Soft Matter and Applied Science.
We look forward to enjoying the same success in Portorož, Slovenia at the next AERC!
