Greetings from Goa, India, on the shores of the Arabian Sea.
I am here at the International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology, hosted by the Indian Association for General Relativity and Gravitation and the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, part of theTata Institute of Fundamental Research. Goa has changed a lot since the first ICGC meeting here in 1987, but the beaches and hospitality still make for a most pleasant spot to talk about physics.
In the next week or two, I hope to post more about the events and talks here at the conference. I am here in Goa representing FQXi, because we hope to expand our connections to the research community in India. A quick look at our Member list shows that we have just two members currently based in India, despite the many researchers here studying foundational questions.
My task here is to find out how FQXi can best help the Indian research community. One of our strengths as a funding agency is the flexibility of our funding -- we can support projects around the world, and we can support projects of many forms and function. Case in point, we were able to help with the conference by supporting the attendance of members of the Indian press. The worldwide public has a growing interest in science, and the attendance of the press at meetings like this help spread the word about good science.
Stay tuned for more.