The XXXVIII Symposium of the Scientific Instrument Commission will take place from the 23d to the 27th of September 2019 in Havana, Cuba. It will be jointly organized by the University of Havana, the Cuban Chemical Society, the Cuban Physics Society and the Office of the Historian of Havana. It will take place at the University of Havana Convention Center and at scientific institutions in Old Havana.

The Symposium theme is “Instruments at crossroads”. In addition to sessions of 20-minute papers, pitch sessions and poster sessions will also be held.

Symposium theme: Instruments at crossroads

The invention, construction and use of scientific instruments are often strongly affected by external conditions that depend on time period and geographical location. Climate, for instance, may influence the choice, use and life not only of meteorological instruments but also of all kind of instruments – think of polar, tropical or equatorial locations. Changes in local (or global) economics, politics or agricultural and industrial development, may also shape instruments’ design and making – think of the disruption created by electric trams passing close to urban physics laboratories. We might wonder how such crossroads may bring to instruments obsolescence, innovation, or reconfiguration; how are scientific instruments adapted, reconfigured or created in response to changing external circumstances?

For its 2019 Symposium, the SIC and its local Cuban organizers welcome proposals for 20-minute papers that deal especially with this issue. It also invites members to propose sessions (3-4 papers plus commentary) that explore this general theme.

As every year, the SIC also welcomes proposals for sessions, papers or posters on any topic dealing with the material culture of science.

Please send abstract proposals, using the SIC abstract template, before 1 February 2019.

The program is supposed to be announced 1 March 2019.

The abstrace template is available here.