ANNOUNCEMENT
Dates & Venue
The 10th Annual European Conference of the Society for Scientific Exploration will be held in Leiden, Nederland, on November 13-15, 2014 (Thursday through Saturday). The city of Leiden, with its prestigious track-record of research and its numerous Nobel Prizes provides the perfect historical backdrop for the cutting-edge topics presented by the members of the SSE. Local arrangements are being coordinated by our SSE European Coordinator Dr. Erik Schultes (schultes@hedgehogresearch.info). Dr. C.M. Chantal Toporow chairs the Program Committee (cmc.toporow@mac.com).
Hotel
The conference hotel is the Hotel Ibis, Stationsplein 240, 2312 AR LEIDEN, email: H8087-RE@accor.com. Telephone: 071 – 516 00 00 (see below hotel information). A large block of rooms has been reserved for the SSE at a special conference rate of € 84.00 incl. breakfast. Excl. € 2.00 tourist tax p/p p/night (€ 97.00 for a double room). Reservations must be made by 18 October 2014 to receive this rate. Please call directly to the hotel or send an email and mention this reference number BOER121114 to reserve your rooms at the special rate.
Reception & Outing
A welcoming reception will be held at the Ibis Hotel on Wednesday, November 12, starting at 6 PM. Dinner will be at restaurant Het Koetshuis-De Burcht:
http://www.koetshuisdeburcht.nl.
Attendance
The Society encourages the attendance of students and young investigators, and the conference is open to the public. There is a special, reduced registration fee for students at this event. Please encourage students from your area to come. The Poster session is to encourage students to present their work and start a dialog with the new generation of scientists.
Transportation
There is a very good direct train connection that runs between Schiphol Airport (Amsterdam) and Leiden Railway Station; the ride takes 20 minutes. For more information about accessibility and transport you can take a look at the websites: For arrival hall floor plan:
www.schiphol.com, from Schiphol and for the train schedule go to
www.ns.nl (also in English).
Registration
Online registration and payment is open now. (Note that you'll need to book your hotel separately.)
CALL FOR PAPERS
The overall theme of the conference is "Physical and Biological Correlates in Alternative Healing Modalities". Invited speakers will help define themes to be developed further by our own SSE membership, and the program will include papers assessing progress and social/political issues in areas of longstanding interest to SSE members.
INVITED SPEAKERS:
Dr. Peter Taylor: Professor of Microbiology UCL School of Pharmacy & NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre University College London Pelargonium – native South African plants providing a rich source of metabolites with anti-tuberculosis properties
Dr. Yolene Thomas: Director of Research, Pierre and Marie Curie Universite, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, & Associate Editor: Water Journal 'Commentary on Cellular & Molecular Language: A Role for Water?'
Dr. Eduard van Wijk: Faculty of Science, Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, Analytical BioSciences/ Sino Dutch Centre for Personalized and Preventive Medicine "Bridging Alternative Science and Regular Science: A Role for Biophotons"
Schedule
Conference Day 1 (13 November 8:00-15:00): Life, Water and Light. Recent findings in biophotonics, non-linear diffusion, emergent structures and molecular dynamics of water in cellular physiology. Evening Panel (13 November 19:00-20:30).
Evening Panel: A panel discussion of TBD program topics on November 13. The panel moderator/organizer and panelists will each give a short 5-10 minute presentation/speech and then they will open the floor to the audience for an open panel discussion and Q&A.
Conference Day 2 (14 November 9:00-12:00): Physical and Biological Correlates to Alternative Healing Modalities. Clinical investigation and case studies of promising medical interventions (e.g., placebo-induced healing modalities) that currently lack an adequate theoretical framework. Social Outing to the Leiden Boerhaave Science Museum (14 November 13:00-17:00).
Conference Day 3 (15 November 9:00-16:00): Our Universe: Exploring Concepts of Non-Locality. In keeping with the wide rage of topics encompassed by the SSE, this session will provide a venue for speakers who will present findings from topic areas that may not fit easily into the main conference theme.
Banquet: The Banquet will be 15 November at the Koetshuis, Leiden City Centre. Dr. Ton van Raan, Professor of Quantitative Studies of Science, Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Leiden University will speak about the remarkable history of scientific and medical discovery in Leiden.
CONTRIBUTED PAPERS:
Contributed papers by full members on any topic of interest to the Society are welcome. Papers related to the themes of the conference will be grouped with relevant invited talks when possible. A poster session may be provided for selected papers or on request. EURO SSE 2014 is seeking original, high impact research papers on all original topics related to promoting improved scientific understanding of those factors that unnecessarily limit the scope of scientific inquiry. Papers will be selected on the basis of novelty, technical merit, presentation effectiveness and impact of results as it relates to the overall conference theme. At least one author of the submission must attend and present at the Conference. Accepted papers will be considered for various SSE publications. Titles and abstracts for contributed papers should be sent to the Program Chairman: Dr. C.M. Chantal Toporow (cmc.toporow@mac.com). Electronic submission is required. The Title should be short and informative. Please include Author name and Affiliation, and contact information. Abstracts should be 300 to 500 words (one page of single spaced text), and should summarize the main points of the paper. Plain text as the body of the e-mail is preferred. If special formatting is required for intelligibility, please submit a Word document. If selected for presentation, please plan on a 15-minute talk with 5 minutes for questions. Submissions by Associate members must be sponsored by Full members. (Full members do not require sponsorship.) The cut off date for submissions is September 20th, 2014. Submissions received subsequent to that date may be considered for presentation if the program allows for extra time slots. Authors will be notified of the review result (i.e., acceptance or rejection) and any applicable comments, by October 4th, 2014.
Poster Session:
Some authors may prefer to present their work as a poster presentation. Poster presentations provide an interactive one-on-one discussion of work completed. A short synopsis of the motivation, methodology, outcomes, and conclusions should be included on the poster, with emphasis placed on the outcomes of work completed. For posters, an abstract should be prepared and submitted in accordance with the paper submission process and indicate the preference for a poster presentation. Student submissions must be sponsored by Full members. (Full members do not require sponsorship.) The conference committee intends to partner meritorious poster submitters with SSE full members in similar research fields. If accepted, the poster board shall measure 1m width and 2m height. We advise to print the posters beforehand and bring them with you and we will supply tape to mount your posters. The cut off date for abstract submissions for the posters is October 1st, 2014. Authors will be notified of the review result (i.e., acceptance or rejection) and any applicable comments, by Ocober 4th, 2014.
Important Dates
Paper submission due: September 20, 2014
Notification of paper acceptances: October 4, 2014
Early hotel rates October 18, 2014
Early fee deadline for registration: October 18, 2014
Conference: November 13-15, 2014
Euro SSE 2014 Program Committee:
Dr. Vasileios Basios, Senior Researcher at the University of Brussels, Dept. of CeNoLi-ULB Statistical Physics & Complex Systems
Prof. Ferdinando Bersani, Professor Emeritus of Physicis at University of Bologna, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
Dr. Larry Dossey, M.D., Executive Editor, EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing, Emeritus Executive Editor of Journal of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine.
Mgr. Michal Teplan, Ph.D., Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Measurement Science, Bratislava
Dr. C.M. Chantal Toporow, Program Chair, EURO SSE 2014, Leiden, Nederland
Dr. Herman A. van Wietmarschen, Scientist, Microbiology and Systems Biology Dept. TNO, Utrecht, Nederland
Extra information on local venues
Ibis Hotel: It is a basic hotel in walking distance to the City Centre and all museums. There is a nice lobby with a bar.
