I remember a GRC where a large number of the attendees ended up going to the hospital after joining in a soccer game. The Thursday night session looked like a meeting of wounded soldiers.
- Dennis Klug
By choosing different areas to emphasize each year, the Condensed Matter Physics GRC helped to counterbalance the centrifugal forces endemic to such large, rapidly growing fields in the process of splitting in subfields. Much cross-fertilization resulted.
- Morrel H. Cohen
Very early on, there were acronyms everywhere for the various Raman methods. My favorite is one I heard from Al Harvey at the 1976 conference. Common Old Ordinary Raman Spectroscopy - COORS.
- Larry Rahn
At the morning coffee break during the Isotopes in Biological and Chemical Sciences Gordon Conference in 1998, 80 percent of the participants did not return. It turns out they were filming a "Baywatch" episode across the street on the beach at Ventura.
- John S. Blanchard
The GRC format doesn't work everywhere. At a meeting in the Riviera in 1975, it became evident that you can't have a scientific session after a French dinner - so one was held in the late afternoon.
- Cheves Walling
The Cancer Detection and Diagnosis GRC was excellent because the latest in the clinical proteomics and the challenges involved were discussed. Based on the discussion during the conference, guidelines for biomarker validation were established.
- Mukesh Verma