Short Course: Thermodynamic modeling with alphaMELTS and other MELTS software

[Paula]

September 22nd, 2014: The response to the workshop announcement has been overwhelming. Details of additional workshop(s) and other updates are now on the workshop home page. Please help to get the word out, particularly to new MELTS users and AGU Fall Meeting attendees. Thanks!

We are pleased to announce a three day workshop at Caltech, Thursday 11th - Sunday 14th December, 2014, on the use of alphaMELTS, and other MELTS software, for calculation of phase equilibria in igneous systems. The instructors are the developers of alphaMELTS, Paula Antoshechkina and Paul Asimow, plus special guest Mark Ghiorso, chief developer and maintainer of the MELTS family of software programs and underlying models. Participant support funds from NSF allow us to offer the course free of charge and with substantial to complete travel support for all attendees.

The MELTS family of algorithms is widely used by petrologists and geochemists to predict the outcomes of melting and crystallization processes, to compare with experiments or to design experimental campaigns, to assess the energy budgets of igneous processes, to teach the principles of igneous petrology, and more. Here, at Caltech we develop and maintain alphaMELTS, a text-based front end to the MELTS, pMELTS, and pHMELTS models (with incorporation of rhyolite-MELTS in progress). This short course will introduce users to the underlying thermodynamics, illustrate the capabilities and potential applications of individual MELTS-type models and give participants first hand experience running MELTS programs and tools. We will focus on the alphaMELTS front-end at first but will also be demonstrating a variety of interfaces supported by Caltech and OFM-Research, from the well-established (e.g. the original MELTS graphical user interface) to the new and cutting edge (e.g. MELTS_Excel, libalphaMELTS).

Any user or prospective user of the alphaMELTS software for teaching or research is eligible to join the workshop. No previous knowledge of MELTS (in general, or alphaMELTS in particular) is required. Participants may be of any nationality, and may be working in the United States or any other country. Senior scientists, postdoctoral fellows, Ph.D. students and master's students are the expected audience. However, engineers, those in private industry, undergraduates and others may apply and we will consider whether their interests, needs, and backgrounds are suitable for inclusion.

Although the workshop is timed to be just before the AGU Fall Meeting, you are welcome to attend whether or not you plan to go on to San Francisco. The deadline for workshop registration (November 14th) coincides with the close of early online registration for the AGU meeting.

Registration deadline: November 14th, 2014
Deadline for housing: November 10th, 2014
More details: http://magmasource.caltech.edu/workshop/

[Paula]

We had a small problem with the links in the e-mail confirmations when registration first opened today (~12.30pm PDT) so registration was closed for about an hour.

The problem has now been fixed (who'd have thought adding a title to a spreadsheet column could cause so much trouble?!) and registration is open again.

Sorry for the inconvenience. Once again, we hope to see you in Pasadena in December!

Paula

[Paula]

After the registration was working fine for a few hours yesterday we again started to have problems with links in the e-mail confirmations. It may be timezone-related (it was immediately after the first person registered in Australia, where it was already Thursday) or it may be a coincidence.

Although it would be easy enough to remove the links from the automatic e-mails and send them to you manually instead, we are going to keep the registration form down until tomorrow. We have actually been overwhelmed by the response to the workshop announcement and are working hard to see if we can accommodate more participants.

In the meantime, please continue to e-mail me if you are interested in coming to the workshop. When we put the registration form back up we will make sure to take account of your messages.

Thank-you for your patience,
Paula

[Paula]

Registration is up again, at last!

This afternoon (Monday), I will be contacting those who have registered an interest int the workshop already, either via the form or e-mail.

Anyone else who is interested in any of the workshops, including local ones, should register using the link on the Logistics and Registration page.

Automatic e-mails seem to stopped working completely now (grr!). So if you don't get an e-mail within a few hours of registration, or by the next day, then please e-mail me to check your information was received.

Thank-you for your patience!

Paula

[Paula]

As of October 21st, the December workshop is officially full. We have 35 confirmed participants. There are a very limited number of spaces left in the Spring workshop and a few more in the local ones.

I am leaving the registration link there in case anyone wants to fund themselves to attend one of the workshops, including the two local ones. Anyone who is interested in any of the workshops, should register using the link on the Logistics and Registration page. Unless you have your own funding for travel and can make one of the sets of dates in 2015, you will automatically be put on the waiting list.

Paula