May 17, 1998

Rancho Las Palmas, Marriot Hotel, La Jolla, CA

 Attendees: N.L. Ackermann, A. Cheng, M. Dhanak, M.A. Hopkins, H.H. Shen, M. Teng, K.-H. Wang.

Group Picture 1

Group Picture 2

 Review of the sessions at the 12^th Engineering Mechanics conference. Total of 7 fluids sessions and 10 granular material sessions (the latter are jointly organized with the Properties of Materials Committee).

1. Review of papers submitted in this past year. The committee is working hard on increasing the number of paper submissions. A. Cheng suggested to announce to the authors at this conference that the journal welcomes full papers submission after the conference.
2. HH Shen announced that a special issue proposed by M. Teng and K.-H. Wang has been approved by Stein Sture, the chief editor of the Journal of Engineering Mechanics. It has also received the endorsement of the ExCom. This issue will be based on (but not limited to) papers at this conference with the theme "Theoretical and computational non-linear water waves". Because of the page requirement (150-170p) this single theme may not be sufficient to produce the 15-17 papers needed for an issue. Two options now exist. One is to collaborate with the Turbulence Committee to create a double theme with half of the papers from the Turbulence Committee. The other is to extend the theme to include fluid-structure interactions. H.H. Shen will work with M. Teng, K.-H. Wang and the Turbulence Committee to determine the best arrangement. It is planned that the all papers for this special issue will be finalized and submitted for production by the end of this year. The papers will go through the usual rigorous review process.
3. The number of multiple sessions and the resulting schedule conflicts at this conference may be a problem. The seriousness of this problem will be determined from a survey of participants to be conducted after the conference. It is hoped that the survey results will enable the ExCom to determine the maximum number of concurrent sessions to be scheduled at future conferences.
4. EM conferences in 1999 and 2000 have been scheduled. Johns Hopkins will be the host in 1999 (June 13-16) and Texas Austin will be the host in 2000 (mid May). Student paper competition may be implemented in 2000. Everyone felt positive about this idea.
5. A. Cheng created a web page for our committee. This can be a powerful tool to increase interest of members in participating in our conference and journal activities. Some discussion went on about what to include in this web page. Input from members is needed. Current thoughts are to include the list of committee members from as far back as record can be found, papers published in the Journal of Engineering Mechanics under Fluids Committee, Committee Meeting minutes.

 Respectfully submitted by: Hayley Shen