News Archive Item
SYMPOSIUM: Indoor Air Quality and Cook Stoves in Developing Countries
Description:
Symposium on Indoor Air Quality and Cook Stoves in Developing Countries
Apply for a scholarship!
Indoor Air 2011 will be held June 5-10, 2011, in Austin, Texas. The conference is expected to draw over 1,200 attendees from 45 to 50 countries.
Indoor Air 2011 will include a student-run symposium on indoor air quality, energy efficiency, and cook stoves in developing countries. Scholarships ($1,000) are available for interested IGERT trainees to attend the symposium. Students are strongly encouraged to submit an abstract and actively participate as a speaker and/or poster presenter. Scholarship recipients may also choose to simply attend the symposium, where they will be able to participate in round-table discussions and design workshops shaped by their own questions, motivations, and literature and research findings directly or indirectly related to this field.
Information about the general conference may be accessed at the conference website, www.indoorair2011.org.
Abstracts submitted for the symposium on indoor air quality and cook stoves in developing countries may be submitted via the website listed above (until October 8th). Thereafter, abstracts that follow the guidelines on the conference website may be submitted to Brent Stephens (stephens.brent@mail.utexas.edu) until November 30th, 2010. Please include “IA2011 Student Symposium Application” as the subject line in the email.
In addition to an abstract (if submitted) your application should include the following information in the format shown:
Name:
University:
Degree program (department, etc.):
Name of IGERT program (if an IGERT trainee or affiliate):
Have you or will you submit an abstract?
If yes, please indicate the title of the abstract:
Personal Statement – In 400 words or less, please indicate why you are motivated to attend a symposium on Indoor Air Quality and Cook Stoves in Developing Countries.
Please send your completed application to Brent Stephens (stephens.brent@mail.utexas.edu).
The application process will stay open until all scholarships are distributed. However, abstracts for presentations made at the symposium must be received by no later than November 30th, 2010.
Additional information about the symposium is provided below.
This symposium will address improvements in, and implementation of, cook stove technologies in the developing world. Inefficient cook stoves are directly or indirectly responsible for several health, environmental, and social issues that disproportionately and adversely affect women and young children around the world. Indoor air pollution in households that burn solid fuel (coal, biomass, animal dung) is responsible for an estimated 1.6 million premature deaths each year, representing up to 4% of the global burden of disease. In addition to impacts on indoor air quality, carbon dioxide and carbon black emissions from cook stoves are also important contributors to global climate change. Cook stoves are also part of a complex web of suffering in refugee camps. For example, amongst 2.2 million refugees in Darfur, the majority cook on very inefficient stoves that require substantial foraging for biomass fuels. It is during foraging that many people, mostly women and young girls, are brutally attacked by militia and rebels. Improved cook stove technologies could reduce the extent of foraging activities and indirectly the amount of attacks on these refugees. Furthermore, improvements in cookstove technologies will provide more time to hundreds of millions of women who could thus engage in other social and economic activities that improve their own lives as well as the lives of their families and communities.
This symposium will bring together recognized experts and students from a broad range of scientific disciplines working on, or interested in, improved cook stove technology and implementation. Importantly, the problems of cookstove usage and the effects in developing countries are complex and require interdisciplinary solutions. This symposium will deal with fundamental technical issues related to combustion of various types of fuels in cook stoves, pollutant generation and transport, inhalation exposure, effects of ventilation, and (importantly) the social, political, and economic obstacles to effectively implement improved cook stoves in developing countries. Don’t pass up a great opportunity to learn about and contribute to this important area of research as it develops—apply for a scholarship today!
