Contacts, Collaborations, and the Buddha

I was a graduate student at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel when I first attended the Chemistry and Physics of Isotopes Gordon Research Conference. I was then doing research on secondary isotope effects. To me, established scientific names like Jake Bigeleisen and Jack Shiner carried the same weight and authority as equations and theories. Spending five days with people whose articles and research I revered was an unbelievable experience. I had never imagined it possible to talk with the leaders in my field. My first GRC experience and the contacts I made shaped my future career.

The structure of the Gordon Conferences allowed me to spend free time in the afternoons having informal discussions while climbing mountains or sailing the lakes of New Hampshire with Jake Bigeleisen at the helm of the boat; we were able to continue discussions on the size of isotope effects, tunneling effects, or gas-phase isotope effects. (Jake was the Buddha of isotope effects.) Conversations lasted late into the night, typically until 2:00 or 3:00 a.m., in a room set aside for this purpose. These ex-periences were more valuable than I as a young re-searcher could have possibly imagined.

The Gordon Conference format, which is surely the best model for getting the most out of a conference, helped me develop valuable relationships. When I re-turned to Israel, I felt I could call upon these colleagues –friends I had made at the conference–for input. Without the Gordon Research Conferences I could never have de-veloped the research I was working on.

When I finished my Ph.D., I needed to look for a postdoc position. Although a foreigner, I had a distinct advantage over other applicants because of my participation in the Isotopes Gordon Conference. I applied directly to Franklin A. Long, whom I had met at the first Gordon Conference I attended. I told him I was interested in working with him on isotope effects and proton transfer reactions. Without this valuable contact I do not know where I would have ended up.

I rarely missed an Isotopes Gordon Conference because I saw them as the greatest resource I had for pursuing my research. Even after I decided to shift my career and became the head of the Institute for Science Education and Science Communication, I continued to keep abreast of the field of isotope effects by attending the conferences.

After my career transition I was invited to talk at the first New Visualization Technologies in Science Education Gordon Conference in Irsee, Germany, in 1994. I have found these conferences to be as enlightening and beneficial as the Isotope Conferences. I participated in all the Visualization Conferences that followed (now called Visualization in Science and Education). I formed new relationships, and my group of five was awarded a mini-grant to study visualization in the United States, Russia, Kenya, Eritrea, and Canada. This year five of us who participated in the Visualization GRC are studying the effects of culture on science visualization. I seriously doubt this collaboration would have occurred had it not been for GRC.