Well, this is my first attempt to blog and I thank Rebecca and Siv for setting this up for me!

I'm embarking on my first COACh trip: http://coach.uoregon.edu/coach/.  This is a grass-roots organization started by Geri Richmond, a super chemist at the University of Oregon.  It is designed to promote women scientists in developing countries.  This trip takes us to Casablanca where we meet with Moroccan, Algerian, and Tunisian women scientists.  Some men scientists, as well.

I have been to the IUPAP Women's Conference once and I will try to compare and contrast.

It took me 4 airplanes in 19 hours, plus an hour taxi ride from the airport to the hotel, to get here -- AOK because that is just what I do (... my name is Laura Greene and I'm a travelaholic...).  The taxi ride from the airport to Casablanca was simple and easy, but entering the city all is changed.  There appears to be no traffic signals and making turns is quite an ordeal in ruling the road.  Brake screeches and horns blaring fill the audible spectrum.  It actually did not seem unfriendly -- just that kind of driving was one of the local sports.  It reminded me of the traffic in Naples; just more crowded and somewhat more aggressive.

Tonight, Tuesday, March 5, we all met and had a reception and dinner.  We all went out of our way to interact with women not from our home countries.  Here are three I had dinner with -- two from Morocco and one from Algeria.  I also had dinner with Sonia Haddad from Tunis who has been doing great work on graphene.  With her recent IoP comment, I think we will grow more communication and collaborations.  I met her first at the STRIPES conference last year.

At dinner the N. African women said they did not have access to APS journals since the institutional cost was too high and had to rely on collaborators to get full papers.  I immediately e-mailed Gene Sprose, editor of Physical Review, asking if there were special rates for developing countries.

My pictures are not posting very well -- I only got this one up -- hopefully more later!  
Agenda and bios will come up soon -- we all introduce ourselves with a single ppt - first thing!
Workshop starts early tomorrow and everyone is so excited to be here!


_____________________________


It is Wednesday morning and I'm off to breakfast at the hotel:  March 6, 2013

Here are a couple more pictures from the Reception.  Just below is Geri Richmond, who is the founder of COACh.  She is an amazing chemist from the University of Oregon and just got appointed to the National Science Board.   She is with Khandjia Ziat, Prof. of Chemistry in Morocco -- fascinating interfacial chemistry ... and talk about energetic women... terrific!

Here I am with Sonia Haddad (center).

Gene Sprouse e-mailed me overnight about reduced APS Rates for journals in Africa.  They supply APS journals free to Sub-Saharan Africa and Bangladesh and that you can look at what is available in each country from the ICTP web site: http://www.ejds.org/ejds/  Unfortunately Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia do not satisfy the economic cut to qualify.  I'm going to follow this up to see if we can offer some break for North African institutions -- maybe with special support through our state department.  I do understand APS has to cover costs and they already run an amazingly efficient operation

This morning we will have presentations from each participant -- just 5 minutes about ourselves and our work.

Off to breakfast...