News

Is is our pleasure to announce that the 30th International Conference on Ultra-relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (Quark Matter 2023) will be held on September 3-9, 2023 in Houston, Texas, USA. The conference will take place in the ‘Hilton of the Americas’ hotel in downtown Houston near the George R. Brown Convention Center.

QM 2023 will be organized as an in-person conference.  Any potential health or weather related changes will be announced on the website, if necessary.

The main webpage (http://qm2023.phys.uh.edu) is linked to an indico website for registration, abstract submission, timetables etc. (https://indico.cern.ch/event/1139644/)

The abstract submission started March 1st, 2023 and ends officially on May 1st, 2023. Notifications about abstract acceptance will be made before June 22, 2023.

You can register for the conference from today on until June 1st (early registration fee: $650) or from June 1st until July 31st (late registration fee: $750). An accompanying person fee will be $350.

Visa letters can be requested at the time of registration, but they will only be issued after registration payment has been received. For special cases we can issue the visa letter earlier, if a support letter from the advisor or the institution can be provided to qm2023@uh.edu.

There will be no fee reductions or special fees for students and young scientists. Instead we will sponsor the lodging for these groups in the conference hotel upon request and review. Please submit your requests by June 1st, 2023 (see details on the webpage). Hotel registration for all others opens on the main web-page in the next few days with a special link to the Hilton, which guarantees the reduced hotel rate of $169 plus tax for single or double occupancy. The number of rooms is limited, so please register early. Other hotel options are nearby, but have to be arranged on an individual basis. No other room blocks were set aside. We anticipate all participants to stay in the conference hotel.

We are looking forward to greeting all of you in Houston in September.

Dear Colleagues,

The deadline for Quark Matter abstract submissions is approaching fast. After consultation with the large experimental groups we have decided to extend the submission deadline by one week to Monday, May 8. This deadline is firm, though, and cannot be delayed any further. Please make sure that all abstracts are submitted by the end of business day on the 8th (U.S. time).

We have started to submit visa support letters. More than 80 have been delivered already. We will send you a letter as soon as you have a pending registration and have requested the letter according to the registration instructions.

Please remember that in order for students/young scientists to receive free lodging a student/young scientist support request is required. Just follow the guidelines in 'General Information' on the main webpage. Most rooms in the Hilton will be double occupancy rooms, so if you have a preferred room mate, please let us know in your request.

A preliminary time table, that already lists all the student day and plenary presentations, has been posted on Indico. We hope to have abstract approvals and announcements regarding the parallel session program for all the speakers by June 22nd. Please be aware that the deadline for the early registration fee is June 1st. Late registration will close by July 31st.

At this time we do not anticipate any significant restrictions on the number of posters, so requested oral presentations that are declined can be converted to a poster presentation. This way we hope to ensure that most who submit abstracts, either oral or poster, will be able to present their work in person. The ten best posters will be chosen for flash talks and will receive a poster award.

Please direct any other questions you might have to qm2023@uh.edu

Dear Colleagues,

The start of QM 2023 is only three weeks away. Here are some last-minute announcements and tips.

Travel: Most of you will arrive at IAH, the large International Airport, outside of Houston. Travel to the hotel is best by taxi or ride share services, such as UBER and LYFT. The latter two are generally about half as expensive as a cab to the city, and should run around $35-$50, depending on the time of day. The ride from the airport to downtown takes about 30 minutes. IAH is a big hub, so clearing immigration and customs might take some time. If you arrive internationally the arrival area in Terminal E is under construction, but the transportation services will know where to go. Just follow the signs.
Public transportation from the airport is possible, but limited to one bus route. METRO Bus 102 serves the airport and surrounding vicinity with multiple stops and continues to the METRO station downtown. The fare is $1.25 (cash only; the driver does not make change). Transit time to downtown runs 50 to 90 minutes. Riders may stow luggage in the baggage compartment accessed from the outside of the bus (drivers do not assist with luggage). Pick up and drop off is at the METRO Bus Stop on Baggage Claim Level, south side of Terminal C.
For people arriving at HOU, the city airport, you will be only miles away from the hotel, so that ride is rather short., and can be done with ride shares, taxis or buses.

Hotel layout and conference registration: The conference will be held on all days in the conference hotel, the Hilton of the Americas, in downtown Houston on 1600 Lamar Street. The main registration desk is located on the 4th floor of the Hilton. It will open on Sunday, September 2nd at 8 a.m. and will stay open until the end of the conference. We expect most people to register either on Sunday from 8-9 a.m. or on Monday from 8 to 8:45 a.m.
All talks will be held on the 2nd floor of the Hilton in the Ballroom of the Americas. The ballroom will be broken down into parallel rooms for the sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday. All rooms will be labeled and will have displays to identify the respective sessions. Coffee breaks will be served in front of the 2nd floor Ballroom. Lunches will be served on the 4th floor in the Grand Ballroom. The banquet dinner on Friday will be held in the 2nd floor Ballroom.  The poster session will be held on the 4th floor in the Grand Ballroom on Tuesday afternoon.

Program: Detailed instructions for poster and talk presenters can be found on the Indico website. A map of the poster session layout based on track and abstract number will be displayed in the booklet that is part of your welcome package. Both, the map and the booklet can also be found on the QM Indico webpage. Posters need to get mounted on Tuesday before 3 p.m. and need to be taken down on Wednesday after 4 p.m.
We are expecting 307 posters, 210 parallel talks, 48 plenary talks, and 10 flash talks. The full program is now available on the Indico site, and a complete participant list will be posted this week. Instructions for poster and talk presenters are detailed on the website. All presenters should check the program and let us know whether any last minute changes need to be made at this time (send email to qm2023@uh.edu). The program is also available through the 'HEPCon' app. Just download the app on your mobile device from your favorite store for free, and look for QM 2023. 

Social events include a student gathering on Sunday evening, a reception at the Houston Museum of Natural Science on Monday evening, cheese and wine at the poster session on Tuesday, a Houston ballet performance on Wednesday evening, the NASA excursion on Thursday afternoon, and the banquet dinner at the Hilton on Friday. Public transportation tickets for the reception and the ballet will be provided in your welcome package. The bus service to NASA is part of your NASA ticket. The IAC meeting is scheduled for Thursday afternoon, the IAC dinner is scheduled for Thursday evening (bus service included).

We are looking forward to welcoming all of you in Houston.