CALPHAD XXXVII - Fifth day June 19th 2008

The first days of CALPHAD were occupied (besides watching the technical sections, of course) with explorations of the environment at Saariselkä. Some of us went to the Urho Kekkonen nature Park, which starts just about 1Km from the hotel. The participants in this adventure are the three musketiers: André, Karin and José as the photo proves (Dartagnan here takes the picture).





The start of the trail is deceiving. What seemed to be a rather boring ladscape turned out to be a nice example of Scandinavian nature. We had even disturbed some locals, as these photos prove (including a rather daring activity by André).

















After that we proved that God is Computational thermodynamicist, since the only days with sunshine in the whole time were the days (or, better said, night) of the Midnight sun party and the excursion day in Tankavaara. The first photo shows our special guest (i.e. the sun) shining at midnight in the Kaunispää mountain, the second photo show our fellow calphadians searching for the samples of their next assessment. Next comes the banquet and the departure from Saariselkä.

CALPHAD XXXVII - Third day June 17th 2008

So much for the daily basis, but at least now I have learned how to download my photos to the computer using the memory card directly. Most of us arrived at Helsinki on saturday, 14th. The first CALPHAD "meeting" then took place at Helsinki´s airport on sunday morning, waiting for the only flight to Ivalo. Some photos from the happening:
















We arrived at Ivalo at lunch time and went to the hotel, transported by a sympathetic bus driver with excellent english skills (he received a compliment by John Cahn!). The rest of sunday was spent at looking for a place to lunch (the hotel restaurant, were I first tasted Renndeer meat) and visiting the "big" city of Saariselkä. We found what is important for a CALPHAD meeting, how the photos below proove:


Some of the highlights of the first day were:
- Tetsuo Mohri´s talk on CVM
- B. J. Lee´s talk on grain boundary energies
- John Agren´s talk on irreversible thermodynamics

CALPHAD XXXVII - First day June 15th 2008

It was a long period of silence, but I am returning back with my regular posts. I hope to contribute in a daily basis while I am attending the CALPHAD XXXVII conference, which takes place this time in Saariselkä/ Finland. For now I have to report the arrival of all people in the very strange place, where the sun never goes down (at this time of the year). Next I will post more informations and some photos, stay tuned.