Chairperson's Address, December 2022

Dear Colleagues and Members,
 
In our last newsletter, I hinted on the creation of new Special Interest Groups (SIG) and a change in the ERCOFTAC Executive Committee (EC). In the Autumn Festival in Lyon, France we have indeed followed up on both promises:

With Professor Maria Vittoria Salvetti, we now have a new Chair of the Scientific Program Committee (SPC). For the first time, a female scientist is at the helm of this committee that drives so many key activities of ERCOFTAC. Many of you will know Maria Vittoria from her own research, as editor of the journal Flow Turbulence and Combustion, as organizer of the recent DLES workshop, or in one of the many other roles she has served and contributed to our research community. I’m looking forward to how she will be shaping the SPC.

I’m glad to announce that Professor Stefan Hickel took on the position of Treasurer and, hence, will continue to serve in the EC. Stefan will support Maria Vittoria as Deputy SPC Chairperson to allow her to build the new SPC leadership team in due time. Stefan remains responsible for the next ETMM14 conference in Barcelona in 2023. I would like to use this occasion to thank Professor Bernard Geurts, who served in the EC first as SPC Chairperson and then as Treasurer for more than a decade, for his dedication and contributions to our community.

Regarding our new Special Interest Groups, SIG 53 Fragmentation and Sprays (FAS) is coordinated by Professors Mikhael Gorokhovski and Remi Zamansky. The idea for this SIG originated from workshops organized by Mikhael and Professor Alfredo Soldati to better understand the airborne transmission of COVID. However, the topic is much broader covering a new domain in modern physics that is also relevant for combustion and many other processes involving multiphase flows.

SIG 54 Machine Learning for Fluid Dynamics is coordinated by Professor Paola Cinnella and Oriol Lemkhul. Paola is highlighted in our latest “spotlight on the women in ERCOFTAC” (see below). The SIG addresses the need to spread knowledge and to foster collaborations on machine learning (ML) techniques for flow modelling, simulation, and analysis. While some ML: techniques have already been in use in our community, many of us feel that this rapidly growing and impactful field deserves dedicated attention – glad to see this being picked up!

Finally, I want to put your attention to the special issue from the last ETMM13 that is now available at Flow, Turbulence and Combustion | Volume 109, issue 4 (springer.com). Thank you for your continuous support and all you are doing for the ERCOFTAC community! I wish you can find joy and peace in this holiday season! 

Prof. Dominic von Terzi,
Chairperson of ERCOFTAC