David Tlusty and Frank Geurts both traveled earlier this month to Snowbird (Utah) to attend the 33rd Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics.This long-standing workshop series takes up a unique position amongst high energy nuclear and particle physics workshops in that it sees an attendance of of theorists and experimental scientists from US and European institutes as well as Asian and African institutes!
The combination including representations from almost all major experimental heavy-ion collaborations provide for an ideal environment to discuss current developments in the field. The format of morning and evening presentations further allow for ample time for in-person discussions in the afternoon, either in the ski lift (Frank does not ski) or when strolling along the beach when the workshop is held at warmer locations.
David (see picture) presented a set of first results on directed flow measurements from the fixed-target data that was taken in a, short, dedicated run in 2015. Frank talked about exciting new opportunities that the STAR collaboration recently proposed in a joint detector upgrade effort with the CBM collaboration in Germany in what is generally referred to as FAIR Phase 0.

The Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics is organized by Rene Bellwied (UH), Anthony Timmins (UH), and Frank Geurts (Rice).