CONFERENCE REPORT 27th Nordic Rheology Conference and Course (NRC 2018) Trondheim, Norway June 13 – 15, 2018 The 27th Nordic Rheology Conference welcomed 65 dele- instances where articles published in the Annual Trans- gates from 14 countries, and offered 5 invited plenary lec- actions of the Nordic Rheology Society have contributed tures, 15 poster presentations and 24 oral presentations. directly in the writing of standards and also discussed The conference was jointly organised by the Norwegian challenges with the use of limited rheological descrip- University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and SINTEF tors in standards particularly when replacing on type of and hosted by NTNU. The theme of the conference was material with another, such as the move towards water ‘Rheology for a better world’, which was borrowed from based viscosifiers. His lecture was followed by a session our host, NTNU’s motto ‘knowledge for a better world’ with contributed papers on rheological methods, which and proved to be eminently suitable for an event show- covered both instrumentation and techniques. casing the multifaceted discipline of rhe o logy. After coffee, the programme continued with a ple- The rheology course took place on Wednesday nary lecture by Jeff Morris entitled ‘Extreme transitions June 13, 2018 with 20 participants representing both of flow properties: Discontinuous shear thickening and academia and industry from 7 countries. The morning hydrate jamming’ which provided an engaging journey session consisted of a classroom introduction to rheol- into the world of flows and particulate suspensions, ogy, lectured engagingly by Jeff Morris, CUNY City Col- something that would prove to be a significant theme lege of New York. The afternoon session involved labo- throughout the conference. There followed sessions ratory demonstrations of soft viscoelastic gel materials with contributed papers on the themes of complex flu- in the rheology laboratory of NTNU’s department of ids in drilling applications and food rheology, highlight- biotechnology and food science followed by examples ing the breadth of rheological applications. After lunch, of problems and pitfalls working with such materials an engaging poster session and the annual meeting of and an optional visit to the SINTEF laboratories. the Nordic rheology society, the final plenary lecture of The main conference programme started on the first day was given by Tonje Eide Helle and Inger- Wednesday evening with a welcome reception and or- Lise Solberg (Norwegian Road Authority and the Geo- gan concert in Trondheim’s cathedral, the Nidaros- logical Survey of Norway). Their lecture dealt with the domen, followed by a buffet and drinks reception. The subject of quick clays and landslides and covered not organ concert was a gift to the conference delegates only the scientific basis of quick clay stability and insta- from the municipality of Trondheim and it was a great bility but also detection, monitoring and stabilisation honour to be able to experience the organ playing at strategies and societal implications of instability and such close quarters in the magnificent surroundings of landslides both historically and today. The relevance of the cathedral. I’m sure I’m not the one who was minded their lecture is perhaps highlighted in the fact that a to think of frequency dependent behaviour as I listened week after the conference there was a landslide where to the reverberations of the masonry with the deep bass quick clay was implicated just across the fjord from tones, a perhaps unintentional but very fitting link for Trondheim at Leksvik in Indre Fosen municipality. The a rheology conference! Summer weather in Trondheim scientific program for the day was rounded off with is not always reliable but weather gods were smiling on contributed papers covering electrorheological, mag- us and the city and cathedral showed their best side in netorheological and composite systems. The confer- the summer sunshine, while conference delegates both ence dinner was held at Banksalen in downtown Trond- old and new took the opportunity to become acquaint- heim and gave the opportunity to see both a little of ed or reacquainted in relaxed surroundings. the archaeological excavations of historic Trondheim The conference was officially opened on Thursday and a contemporary art installation whilst enjoying an by Øyvind Gregersen, Dean of NTNU’s Faculty of Natural aperitif followed by a 3 course dinner showcasing local Sciences. This was followed by the first plenary lecture, ingredients. The dinner was characterised by lively and by Arild Saasen (University of Stavanger), who addressed engaged conversation among the conference dele- the contribution of rheology to industry through the use gates, some of whom chose to continue to socialise, of rheological measurements in industrial standards, making the best of the long light summer night, after particularly in relation to the oil industry. He highlighted the dinner wrapped up. Applied Rheology | Volume 28 (2018) | Issue 4 DOI: 10.1515/arh-2018-0007 48 CONFERENCE REPORT On Friday morning Randy Ewold (University of Illi- normal mucus rheology and underscoring how rheo- nois at Urbana-Champaign) took to the podium to pre- logical understanding can drive advances in medicine. sent his plenary lecture ‘Engineering yield stress fluids The remaining contributed papers of the conference for a better world’. Here he presented exciting applica- were presented in two sessions, one covering pharma- tion areas of yield stress fluids including firefighting, ceutical rheology and one covering rheological model- and challenged the conference delegates to be inspired ling, a demonstration of the breadth of subject matter by engineering disciplines and explore the design space touched upon within the conference. when working with applied rheology. This was fol- Finally, and most importantly, I would like to take lowed by a session of contributed papers on polymer this opportunity to thank our sponsors, The Research rheology. Before the last session of the conference Jo- Council of Norway and the Department of Biotechnol- hanna Aho presented the Nordic Rheology Society ogy and Food Science NTNU, and the conference dele- Poster prize of ¤100 to Alondra Renteria Ruiz of the Uni- gates who travelled to Trondheim from the Nordic versity of British Columbia for her poster ‘Rheological countries and beyond to present their work, to learn, to and geometric effects in cementing of irregularly network, to explore new possibilities and to contribute shaped wells’. The final plenary lecture was given by to ‘rheology for a better world’. Rolf Walstad (St. Olav hospital and NTNU) who talked about rheology, airway mucus and disease, providing Catherine Taylor Nordgård, NTNU sobering examples of the health consequences of ab- [email protected] 2nd Summer School on Complex Fluid-Flows in Microfluidics Porto, Portugal July 9 – 13, 2018 The second edition of the “Summer School on Complex mulaction, France) showed how to perform rheometry Fluid-Flows in Microfluidics" was held at the Faculty of on a chip with their Fluidicam Rheo, and finally Francis- Engineering of the University of Porto, Portugal from co J. Galindo-Rosales (CEFT/FEUP, Portugal) divided his July 9 – 13, 2018 sponsored by Anton Paar, Applied Sci- time into two presentations, one focused on the differ- ences, BlackHole Lab, Elveflow, Formulaction, the Por- ent approaches for performing extensional rheometry tuguese Society of Rheology, and Rheinforce (in alpha- on a chip, and another one focused on how to exploit betical order). The company Creative CADWorks kindly the non-linear behavior of complex fluids at microscale provided microfluidic connectors, chips and molds fab- for developing damping composites with optimal per- ricated with its 3Dprinter. This 5-days course (6h/day) formance under impact loads. intended to provide cutting-edge knowledge on com- The second day was focused on “Fabrication tech- plex fluid-flow at microscale to those researchers work- niques in Microfluidics”. Benjamin Sévénié (BlackHole ing on microfluidics, with complex fluids or a combina- Lab, France) showed how to fabricate microfluidic chips tion of both. without a clean room, Vânia Silverio (INESC Microsys- The first day of the summer school was fully dedicated tems and nanotechnologies, Portugal) talked about to “Complex fluids and Rheometry at Microscale”. fabrication methods for precision microfluidic inter- Three of the four different approaches to perform faces for the development of microchannel integrated rheometry of a fluid sample with a characteristic di- devices, Paulo Freitas (International Iberian Nanotech- mension smaller than 1 mm were covered during the nology Laboratory, Portugal) lectured on magneto - first day of the summer school: Manlio Tassieri (Univer- phoretic and size based modules for biosensor applica- sity of Glasgow, UK) presented the different principles tions in microfluidics, and finally Paulo Marques (INESC and applications of passive and active microrheology, TEC, Portugal) explained how to fabricate Optofluidic Jan Vermant (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) shared his ex- Devices by Femtosecond Laser Direct Writing and Ma- pertise on interfacial ̈rhe o logy, Hubert Ranchon (For- chining. Applied Rheology | Volume 28 (2018) | Issue 4 49.