August 28, 2005
Dear Colleague:
If you were in
of
the busy, exciting and rewarding 5 days spent in the company of educators
from 42 countries. Whether you came as author, session chairperson,
keynote speaker, committee members, or simply as listener, we thank you for
being there to help make the conference a big success.
Hosted by
anniversary celebration, ICEE-2005 was organized under the leadership of
Rector Professor Dr. Wojciech Zielinski with the help
of Prof. Jerzy
Moscinski, the National Organizing Committee,
and a team of 20 red-shirted student aides. We send a special
"Thank you!" to all of them.
We are especially grateful to Wojciech
Zielinski for his
efforts in making available for the conference the magnificent,
just-completed facilities of the Education and
University. We also thank him for organizing the Janos
Barsony workshop,
which added a special meaning and a personal touch to the conference.
There were close to 400 participants. A total of 326 papers were
presented, along with 6 invited plenary lectures. Forty-four (44)
parallel sessions were organized, facilitated by 64 session
co-chairpersons. The 5 countries with the largest number of participants
were:
One of the highlights of the conference was the presentation of a letter of congratulations from Dr. Arden Bement, Director of the U.S. National Science Foundation, to Prof. Zielinski on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of SUT. The letter, signed by Dr. Bement, was framed and presented on Dr. Bement’s behalf by me to Prof. W. Zielinski, Rector of SUT, during the opening ceremony on July 25. (See photo at the end of this report.) Another notable event was the presentation of the SUT Medal of Merit by Wojciech Zielinski to Win Aung, also during the opening ceremony on July 25.
Other highlights include:
(a) The presentation of plenary lectures by 6 invited speakers;
(b) The publication of a special edition of the
iNEER Special Volume for 2005, a
copy of which was distributed to every registered participant;
(c) The publication, and distribution to all participants, of the complete conference proceedings in both CD and book formats;
(d) The convening of the Joint iNEER Board/ISC meeting on July 24, an event co-chaired by Wojciech Zielinski and Tomas Cermak, Rector, VSB – Technical University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic, who is also the chairman of the iNEER Board;
(e) The conference banquet and folk dance performance by students of SUT at the medieval castle in Toszek on July 25 when, just in time, the rain stopped and a rainbow appeared in the sky above the castle;
(f) The presentation of iNEER Awards to Wojciech Zielinski, Janos Barsony,
and Jerzy Moscinski at the
conference banquet in Toszek on July 25;
(g) The presentation of letters of felicitation on SUT's anniversary celebration by 9 representatives of foreign institutions, during the opening ceremony on July 25;
(h) The convening of the organizing meeting of
the newly formed iNEER
Leadership Council, chaired by Wojciech Zielinski, on
Monday, July 25;
(i) The
organization of the Janos Barsony
Workshop, comprised of a series of
4 technical sessions held on July 25 and 26, in honor of the 65th birthday of
Prof. Janos Barsony, Dean
Emeritus of the Mihaly Pollock Faculty of Engineering
at the University of Pecs, Pecs,
Hungary;
(j) The Rector's Reception and folk music performance by students of SUT on the lawn of the Faculty of Chemistry on July 26;
(k) The performance on July 27, 2005 featuring
the timeless music of
Bach, Dvorak, Paderewski and Mendelssohn in the old
and monumental St. Peter
and Paul's Cathedral;
(l) The all-day technical tour and cultural
event held on July 28 to Kraków,
with all its monumental buildings and places of attraction, including the
Wieliczka salt mine, a World Heritage site; and
(m) The dinner
and dance at Zalesie Grange.
The flawless organization of the conference; the high quality technical
program; the well-attended technical sessions; the delicious food, the
culture and the traditions; the new friends discovered; the beautiful land
and the equally beautiful people, who are at once sincere, unassuming,
generous and hospitable: iNEER conferences are memorable for many of the
same qualities and yet each will also be remembered for its uniqueness.
Like many of the iNEER conferences before it, ICEE-2005 is one that we will
not forget for a long time to come.
Photographic highlights and video clips for ICEE-2005 may be viewed at:
http://www.ineer.org/Photo/Welcome.htm
(A complete photo and video presentations are given in the
first link: “Link to Silesian
Future conferences of the iNEER Network are currently scheduled as
followed:
__________________________________________
2006:
ICEE-2006 - San Juan (Puerto Rico): July 23-28
2007:
ICEE-2007 - Coimbra (Portugal): Sept. 3-8
iCEER-2007 -
2008:
ICEE-2008 - Pecs/Budapest (
iCEER-2008 -
__________________________________________
We hope you will join us for these exciting events. Details will be sent
to
you later.
With kind regards,
Tomas Cermak, Ph.D.
Rector, Technical University of Ostrava
Chair, iNEER Board
Win Aung, Ph.D., P.E., Dr.h.c.
Secretary-General
iNEER