The 25th ECOS Conference 1987-2012: leaving a mark

On our website, we read that “ECOS is a series of international conferences that focus on all aspects of Thermal Sciences, with particular emphasis on Thermodynamics and its applications in energy conversion systems and processes”. Well, ECOS is much more than that, and its history proves it! The idea of starting a series of such conferences was put forth at an informal meeting of the Advanced Energy Systems Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) at the November 1985 Winter Annual Meeting (WAM), in Miami Beach, Florida, then chaired by Richard Gaggioli. The resolution was to organize an annual Symposium on the Analysis and Design of Thermal Systems at each ASME WAM, and to try to involve a larger number of scientists and engineers worldwide by organizing conferences outside of the United States. Besides Rich other participants were Ozer Arnas, Adrian Bejan, Yehia El-Sayed, Robert Evans, Francis Huang, Mike Moran, Gordon Reistad, Enrico Sciubba and George Tsatsaronis.

Ever since 1985, a Symposium of 8-16 sessions has been organized by the Systems Analysis Technical Committee every year, at the ASME Winter Annual Meeting (now ASME-IMECE). The first overseas conference took place in Rome, twenty-five years ago (in July 1987), with the support of the U.S. National Science Foundation and of the Italian National Research Council. In that occasion, Christos Frangopoulos, Yalcin Gogus, Elias Gyftopoulos, Dominick Sama, Sergio Stecco, Antonio Valero, and many others, already active at the ASME meetings, joined the core-group.

The name ECOS was used for the first time in Zaragoza, in 1992: it is an acronym for Efficiency, Cost, Optimization and Simulation (of energy conversion systems and processes), keywords that best describe the contents of the presentations and discussions taking place in these conferences. Some years ago, Christos Frangopoulos inserted in the official website the note that “ècos” (’οικος) means “home” in Greek and it ought to be attributed the very same meaning as the prefix “Eco-“ in environmental sciences. The last 25 years have witnessed an almost incredible growth of the ECOS community: more and more Colleagues are actively participating in our meetings, several international Journals routinely publish selected papers from our Proceedings, fruitful interdisciplinary and international cooperation projects have blossomed from our meetings. Meetings that have spanned three continents (Africa and Australia ought to be our next targets, perhaps!) and influenced in a way or another much of modern Engineering Thermodynamics. After 25 years, if we do not want to become embalmed in our own success and lose momentum, it is mandatory to aim our efforts in two directions: first, encourage the participation of younger academicians to our meetings, and second, stimulate creative and useful discussions in our sessions. Looking at this years’ registration roster (250 papers of which approximately 50 presented by junior Authors), the first objective seems to have been attained, and thus we have just to continue in that direction; the second one involves allowing space to “voices that sing out of the choir”, fostering new methods and approaches, and establishing or reinforcing connections to other scientific communities. It is important that our technical sessions represent a place of active confrontation, rather than academic “lecturing”. In this spirit, we welcome you in Perugia, and wish you a scientifically stimulating, touristically interesting, and culinarily rewarding experience. In line with our 25 years old scientific excellency and friendship!

Umberto Desideri, Giampaolo Manfrida, Enrico Sciubba