SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT - March 15, 2006

The Physics Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory will host the Conference "Nuclear Structure '06" in Oak Ridge, Tennessee from July 24-28, 2006. This is the next meeting in a series of nuclear structure conferences organized every second year in North America. The meeting is timed to follow the Fifth Rare Isotope Accelerator Summer School, to facilitate attendance of the school participants in both events.

In addition to covering current topics in nuclear structure physics, the conference will celebrate the tenth anniversary of the dedication of Gammasphere by highlighting the many scientific accomplishments of this powerful array, along with discussions of the new physics opportunities, which could be realized with the Gammasphere in the coming years.

The focus of the conference will be on recent experimental and theoretical developments in nuclear structure physics, with emphasis on nuclear behavior under extreme conditions as outlined below:

EXPERIMENT:

Proton-rich nuclei, including N~Z nuclei

Neutron-rich nuclei

Synthesis and structure of very heavy nuclei

Masses, moments and radii

Decay modes and decay spectroscopy

High spins, including high-spin isomers

Collective phases, many-body symmetries, clustering in nuclei

Warm nuclei and giant resonances

Interface of structure and astrophysics

Interface of structure and reactions

Interface of structure and tests of the Standard Model

Rare isotopes: Beams and facilities, instruments & techniques

THEORY:

Nuclear forces & effective interactions

Ab initio theory

Shell Model

Mean-field theories & beyond

Weakly-bound and unbound nuclei: Properties, physics of open channels

Many-body symmetries & clustering in nuclei

Reactions

Interdisciplinary aspects of the nuclear many body problem

The conference format consists of invited talks, as well as oral and poster presentations of the contributed abstracts. Following the tradition of the previous meetings, the majority of the talks will be selected from the submitted abstracts. The remaining contributions, if suitable for this conference, may be presented by a poster. Very short (~ 5 min) oral presentations to highlight the best posters are also foreseen.

The conference will begin on Monday morning (July 24) and end around 6 pm on Friday, July 28. There will be a welcoming reception in the evening of Sunday July 23, and a banquet on Thursday, July 27.

Some general information about the conference is provided below. More specific information may be found through the appropriate links on the conference site. For assistance with any special needs or any other information about the conference please contact the conference secretary.

IMPORTANT DATES AND DEADLINES

Deadline for submission of abstracts to be considered for oral presentation: May 1, 2006

Deadline for submission of abstracts to be considered for poster presentation: June 16, 2006

Deadline for early registration: June 23, 2006

Final deadline for registration: July 19, 2006.

Deadline for hotel reservations at reduced rates: July 2, July 6, and July 8, 2006

Deadline to register for tours of SNS and HRIBF: July 10, 2006

First Circular Second Circular

FEES AND REGISTRATION

Online registration will be available by April 1, 2006. Registration and related fees are listed bwlow:

Early registration (June 23, 2006): $350
Late registration (After June 23, 2006): $425
Students: $250 for early registration; $300 for late registration
Hardcopy of Proceedings: $70

Registration fees cover a welcome reception on Sunday, July 23, the conference banquet on Thursday, July 27, lunches from Monday through Friday, coffee breaks, bus rides to ORNL Tours, and conference handouts, including a book or CD of the contributed abstracts and a CD containing the Conference Proceedings.

Conference Fees may be paid via credit card, personal or cashier checks drawn against a US bank, or bank transfer.

During your online registration, please answer questions related to your choices for the medium for the "Book of Abstracts", Tours, or any special needs.

ABSTRACT PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION

Abstracts should conform to the specified one-page templates and may be submitted in the form of portable data format (pdf), Microsoft Word document (doc), or ASCII (txt). The PDF format is preferred. If you prefer to prepare your abstract using the latex template that we have provided, you will need to convert it to the PDF format for submission.

Following the tradition of these meetings, the majority of the talks will be selected from the submitted abstracts. The remaining contributions, if suitable for this conference, may be presented by a poster. Very short (~ 5 min) oral presentations to highlight the best posters are also foreseen. Authors of abstracts selected for oral presentation will be notified in late May. Please make sure that you specify your preference for presentation format(s), and who the presenter is.

Instructions regarding electronic submission of the abstracts may be found at the conference website's "Abstract" page. To begin the process, you must first establish a Login ID and password, which allow you to subsequently manage your profile and all submissions. You can submit and manage more than one abstract using the same Login ID. Abstracts may be modified until these closing deadlines:

May 1, 2006: To be considered for oral presentation
June 16, 2006: To be considered for poster presentation.

PROCEEDINGS

The proceedings of the conference will become available on line, and will be distributed on a CD to all registered participants. Also, we plan to publish the proceedings in the book form if a sufficient number (~100) of the participants express interest in this option and pay the additional $70 fee.

ACCOMODATION AND CONFERENCE SITE

We have reserved a block of 95 Single/Double and 40 King rooms at reduced rates in three area hotels. In addition, a block of 30 rooms is available at the Oak Ridge Comfort Inn for early arrivals on Saturday July 22 and late departures on Sunday July 30. Please contact the hotels directly for room reservations and mention "Nuclear Structure Conference" to get the reduced rate.

Information about the conference hotels and their cut off dates are provided on the "Hotels" page. Reservations received after the cut off dates will be accepted on a space available basis at prevailing rate. Information about other Oak Ridge area hotels as well as maps of Oak Ridge area are also available on the "Hotels" page of the conference web site.

TRAVEL

The following travel information are provided at the conference web site: