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The ICAM Phenomenon
ICAM’s growth from 9 founding branches in the United States in 2002 to 32 US and 25 branches abroad (as of August 2008), has been accompanied by significant funding of its programs by its branch members, the National Science Foundation, the European Union, private foundations, and individuals. The attractiveness of ICAM stems from the bottom-up participation by leading international scientists and institutions in organizing a synergistic mix of cutting edge workshops, schools, junior and senior scientist fellowships, travel and exchange awards for young scientists, and novel science outreach projects in the areas of correlated electronic materials, soft condensed matter, and biological matter. Its branch member institutional supporting cost contributions make possible an adaptive and rapid response to new opportunities.
Branch Membership
*Branch member scientists play a leadership role in ICAM and I2CAM and have privileged access to all ICAM-sponsored activities. Each branch names one member to the ICAM Board of Governors, Science Steering Committee, and Fellow Selection committee, and is entitled to send at least two scientists to any ICAM-organized activity, and up to four representatives to the branch-members-only Annual Conference that brings together leading members of the ICAM community for 3 days each year. Participation by graduate students, postdocs, and junior staff in ICAM activities enables them to become connected to their counterparts at other branches and to gain international recognition.
* Only graduate students, postdoctoral, junior, and senior scientists at ICAM branches are eligible to apply for ICAM Fellowships that make it possible to carry out research at a second ICAM campus through a stipend that supplements existing support.
*The international component of ICAM, I2CAM (the International Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter) provides an unparalleled set of opportunities in Europe, the Mid-East, and Asia for both junior and senior researchers at ICAM branch member institutions. Junior researchers receive support to attend workshops and summer schools abroad and to visit and develop collaborations at leading overseas laboratories, while senior scientists receive support to initiate or expand collaborations with their colleagues at the forty-three overseas institutions presently affiliated with ICAM.
*Only branch members can host ICAM or I2CAM Exploratory Workshops for which ICAM provides up to $30,000 in external support. Hosting a workshop makes it easy for students and postdoctoral researchers on the campus to participate and obtain a sense of the opportunities that lie ahead for research and teaching in complex adaptive matter.
*Only branch members are eligible to join ICAM’s research networks.
*ICAM offers new modalities for enhancing cross-disciplinary research at a branch member campus. These include “worked” examples of mechanisms developed at other branches for organizing interdisciplinary research seminars and improving communication between scientists in different departments and colleges.
*Membership in ICAM’s global science education and outreach network, the Emergent Universe Alliance, offers a way to enhance substantially local campus outreach efforts through access to outreach materials developed and lessons learned at other ICAM institutions
Joining ICAM
For a major research institution, becoming an ICAM branch is easy. It requires a three-year commitment to membership that is accompanied either by an initial three-year institutional supporting cost-sharing contribution to ICAM of $25,000 or an agreement to send $10,000/yr for three years, and allocation of a matching amount at the branch for activities determined by the local scientists and administration. ICAM’s institutional supporting cost funds are used to support fellowships, workshops, outreach and a small part of its administrative costs.