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
The Electrochemistry GRCs in Santa Barbara were seminal to me. I entered the area of electrochemical research with scant formal training, as a one year postdoc, and worked my way into a major field through GRC interactions. To be sure, the wonderful setting on the ocean transmitted a certain magic to the conferences.
- William Geiger
I remember Bill Gelbart broke Robijn Bruinsma's arm (UCLA colleagues at the time) during a competitive arm-wrestling match at a Polymer Physics GRC chaired by Ed Kramer.
- Matthew Tirrell
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
The GRC on Polymer Colloids helped to bring together scientists from a wide range of disciplines, from physics to medicine. This type of interaction helped to improve the mechanism of synthesis method (emulsion polymerization), advance theoretical physics, and also find new applications for polymer colloids.
- D. Sunil Jayasuriya
The Mechanisms of Toxicity GRC was the actual breeding ground for the development of the Society of Toxicology, now one of the most successful scientific societies in the United States and recognized as the home for excellence in toxicological research and expertise.
- Richard Hines