34th International Symposium on Rarefied Gas Dynamics

A preliminary RGD34 program at a glance can be found below. Please click on the image to enlarge it if needed.

RGD34 will be held at UQ's St Lucia Campus in downtown Brisbane, Australia.The map below shows the location of the UQ Campus compared to the Brisbane city and the Brisbane Airport.

The conference Welcome Reception will be held at the Dr Mary Mahoney AO Ampitheatre at the UQ Lakes from 2PM to 5PM in the afternoon on Sunday the 12th of July 2026.

The main conference will be held between two buildings at UQ: the Advanced Engineering Building and the Hawken Engineering Building, with the first day of the conference beginning in the Advanced Engineering Building at 8:20 AM on Monday the 7th of July (with time for Registrations before this if needed).

A map of the UQ campus showing these locations can be found below. Individual maps of the Advanced Engineering Building and Hawken Engineering Buildings are shown below the campus map.

A digital copy of the RGD34 Program Booklet can be found below. A physical copy will be provided to all attendees in their conference bag. It includes a Detailed Program of the conference presentations and posters.

(Click on the photo to open the pdf.)

To see the latest program (including any changes made after printing), use the Whova app or view the Whova online conference platform.

The RGD34 Book of Abstracts can be found below. Please click on the image to access the pdf. It is a large file so it may take some time to download. This will not be printed, so please print it out yourself in advance if you want access to it during the conference.

Co-chairs:

Local Organising Committee:

The Symposium Dinner will be held at the Rivershed at beautiful Howard Smith Wharves in the Brisbane city.

Conference delegates will need to organise their own transport to the Symposium Dinner on Thursday evening after the Social Day either from the UQ campus or the Brisbane City. There are many public transport options to do this, including bus and a ferry along the Brisbane River. Details can be seen in the image below. We recommend taking the ferry from either the City (North Quay) or South Bank to the Howard Smith Wharves Ferry Terminal as this is the simplest way to reach Howard Smith Wharves.

The RGD34 conference social day will be held at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in the suburbs of Brisbane on Thursday the 16th of July. Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is the oldest koala sanctuary in the world and somewhere where conference delegates can get up close and personal with native Australian wildlife such as koalas, kangaroos, wombats and dingoes.

Registration includes bus transfers from UQ to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and back to either the UQ campus or the Brisbane city after the event, entry into Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, and lunch at the venue.

The location of Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in relation to UQ and the Brisbane city can be seen in the map below:

RGD34 gratefully acknowledges the support of the following sponsors:

(You can visit their websites by clicking on the logos.)

Silver Sponsors:

Bronze Sponsors:

Conference Venue:

RGD34 will be held at the University of Queensland's (UQ) St Lucia campus in downtown Brisbane, Australia. UQ is a top 50 ranked university in the world and through UQ's Centre for Hypersonics, UQ is a leading world university in hypersonic and shock wave research.

UQ's St Lucia campus houses several major hypersonic test facilities, such as the T4 Stalker Tube (shown below) and the X2 expansion tube, which will be able to be toured during the conference.

Getting to the Conference

Brisbane is well connected through the Brisbane International Airport (BNE). There are regular direct flights to and from Brisbane into most of Asia and to the East Coast of the USA. Generally, major cities in the rest of the world can be accessed via a single connecting flight.

Further information about destinations which can be reached from Brisbane can be found on the Brisbane International Airport website.

Host City: Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital of the Australian state of Queensland. Being a semi-tropical climate, Brisbane is a great place to visit in winter when RGD34 will be held. Information about accomodation and restaurants specifically related to RGD34 will be provided at a later date, but generic information about Brisbane can be found below.

The Harold Grad Lecture

Dr Domenico Giordano, ESA (retired) 

“Reflections on my experience with the kinetic theory”

Dr Domenico Giordano earned his degree cum laude in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Naples in July 1984, completing a program of study with strong emphasis on aerospace specialization. After completing his military service as second lieutenant in the Italian Army, he spent several months-from January to July 1986-working at FIAT Aviazione in Turin as an engineer, focusing on turbine‑blade heat‑transfer protection.

Dr Giordano joined the European Space Agency in December 1986 and was assigned to the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. He spent three years in the Analysis and Programming section, where he developed expertise in computational fluid dynamics and hypersonic aerodynamics. He then transferred to the Aerothermodynamics section, where he broadened his expertise across several advanced disciplines; his work focused on high‑temperature, non‑equilibrium gas dynamics for both internal and external flows, thermodynamics, and chemical and thermal kinetics. He also acquired expertise in electromagnetic fluid dynamics, deepening his understanding of complex physical processes relevant to atmospheric entry. His staff‑member duties included serving as technical officer for ESA’s technological research programme and general-studies programme and providing technical support to ESA’s projects. In addition, Dr Giordano acted as tutor for undergraduate, graduate, PhD students, and post‑doctoral research fellows.

Dr Giordano earned his PhD cum laude from the École Polytechnique Universitaire de Marseille in November 2005, completing a dissertation titled “On the Statistical and Axiomatic Thermodynamics of Multi‑Temperature Gas Mixtures.” In May 2012, he was seconded to the von Kármán Institute for Fluid Dynamics, where he served as a visiting professor responsible for teaching two courses: Physical Fluid Dynamics and Fundamental Disciplines of Aerothermodynamics.

In 2014, he returned to his duties at ESTEC, where he remained until his retirement in May 2017. Since then, Dr Giordano has continued to pursue scientific research, developing a growing interest in self‑gravitating fluids and general relativity.

The Irving Langmuir Lecture

Dr Shahid Rauf, Applied Materials, Inc.

"Rarefied Plasmas for Nanofabrication: Modeling, Diagnostics and Applications"

Shahid Rauf serves as Managing Director of Plasma Products Modeling (PPM) at Applied Materials, Inc., a global leader in materials engineering solutions for semiconductor and display fabrication. The PPM team leverages advanced physics-based modeling to design products for plasma-assisted processes, including etching, deposition, selective removal, and atomic layer deposition. The PPM team is widely recognized within Applied Materials and externally for pioneering innovative methods for modeling semiconductor industry relevant plasmas, developing cutting-edge plasma processing tools, and advancing the physics understanding of plasma etch and deposition technologies. Shahid Rauf received the Plasma Prize from the AVS Plasma Science & Technology division in 2024. In addition, Shahid Rauf and colleagues won the prestigious Patent Hall of Fame award at Applied Materials in 2020 for patents related to the design of Sym3®, the company’s world-class plasma etch system. Shahid Rauf is the inventor on more than 100 granted patents and has authored more than 100 scientific publications. Prior to joining Applied Materials, Shahid Rauf worked at Motorola (Semiconductor Products Sector) and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA. He received his PhD in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA.

The Lloyd Thomas Lecture

Professor Irina Graur, Aix-Marseille University

"Gas transport at microscale and low pressure: experiments and simulations"

Prof. Irina Graur obtained her M.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from Moscow Lomonossov State University in 1984, followed by a PhD also from the same institution in 1989. She later earned her Habilitation from Provence University in France in 2008. From 1984 to 2000, she was an associate professor at the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics in Moscow. She is currently a professor at Aix-Marseille University in France. Her research has significantly contributed to the study of rarefied gases in aerospace applications. Her current interests focus on the experimental and numerical characterization of gas properties at micro- and nanoscale levels. She leads the research group “Non-Equilibrium Phenomena and Microfluidics” at the IUSTI Laboratory. Additionally, she has organized numerous international conferences, workshops, and summer schools. She has co-authored over one hundred journal articles and conference papers.

Talk summary:

Relatively high Knudsen number flows are encountered in many fields, as the vacuum technology and space applications due to the low operating pressure, as well as in MEMS systems and micro porous media due to the small characteristic dimensions. During several years, we have developed the experimental methodologies to characterize the transport properties of such flows.

For each measurement a model, usually based on the kinetic theory, was developed, allowing the extraction of different flow characteristics. Experimental data for velocity slip and thermal slip coefficients for single gases and gas mixtures are discussed. For flows driven by temperature gradients, experimental data for the thermomolecular pressure difference and the flow relaxation time are analyzed.

All these data are obtained using models that rely, among other parameters, on the known characteristic dimension of a dispositive, such as the diameter or cross-sectional area in the case of a channel. However, for porous samples this information is not directly available. Examples of the characterization of microporous media, including permeability and the Klinckenberg factor, are presented even though a characteristic dimension is not clearly defined for this type of medium. Modeling based on gas kinetic theory enables the extraction of useful parameters, such as the “characteristic flow dimension” of a porous medium, will be discussed. Several examples illustrating the application of this methodology to various types of porous media and different gases are presented for both isothermal and non-isothermal conditions.

The Graeme Bird Lecture

Professor Thomas E. Schwartzentruber, The University of Minnesota

"Direct molecular simulation of hypersonic flow and gas-surface scattering for VLEO"

Tom Schwartzentruber received his Bachelor’s degree in engineering science and his Master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Toronto. He then received his doctorate degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan. For his doctorate work he received the AIAA Orville and Wilbur Wright graduate award. He joined the faculty in the Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics department at the University of Minnesota in 2008, after which he received a Young Investigator Program Award from the AFOSR and the University of Minnesota Taylor Career Development Award for exceptional contributions by a candidate for tenure. He specializes in particle simulation methods such as direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) and molecular dynamics (MD), including coupling such methods with each other and with continuum computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods. Currently, his research group is involved in a number of projects spanning hypersonic nonequilibrium reacting flows, gas-surface interactions and ablation, hybrid particle-continuum methods, and satellite material effects in low earth orbit.

Talk summary:

Predicting what happens as a hypersonic vehicle flies through the atmosphere involves a lot of interesting physics. The strong shock wave, generated ahead of the vehicle, superheats the air to thousands of degrees and partially dissociates the air into atomic oxygen and nitrogen. The vehicle heat shield must simultaneously withstand high temperatures and intense surface chemistry driven by these reactive atomic species. We have reached the point where this thin shock layer can be studied at the scale of individual molecular collisions. Direct molecular simulation (DMS) can now be performed where the only model input consists of the forces between atoms as dictated entirely by quantum chemistry. The direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method lies at the heart of the DMS method and has enabled significant insight into aerothermodynamics for hypersonic flows. In this presentation the DMS method will be described and results for internal energy relaxation, chemical kinetics, and multi-component diffusion will be highlighted. Furthermore, new models for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and DSMC, that are based on DMS results, will be summarized. Finally, there is significant interest in flying hypersonic vehicles very high in the atmosphere and operating satellites in very low earth orbit (VLEO). At such altitudes, the flow transitions from continuum to free-molecular and gas-surface scattering dominates lift and drag. The presentation will conclude with lift and drag predictions for VLEO flight using a new gas-surface scattering model that is based on molecular beam data.

Call for Abstracts

The local organising committee of the 34th International Symposium on Rarefied Gas Dynamics (RGD34) invites members of the rarefied gas dynamics community to subtracts to the conference under the following topics:

AI and Machine Learning in rarefied gas dynamics
Aerospace: high speed flows, shock waves, nozzle expansions, high altitude aerodynamics
Boltzmann and related equations
Experimental methods
Gas-surface interactions
Granular flows
Internal flows and vacuum systems
Jets and plumes
MEMS and NEMS
Moment methods
Monte Carlo methods and numerical
Porous media
Rarefied plasmas
Reactive gas dynamics
Turbulence and instabilities 

The abstract submission due date has been extended to the 1st of March 2026 and can be submitted at the link below:

https://easychair.org/conferences?conf=rgd2026

Abstract templates for Microsoft Word and Latex can be found here and here respectively.

A link to the RGD34 Call for Abstracts flier for sharing with your colleagues and collaborators can be found here.

We look forward to seeing you in Brisbane in 2026,

The RGD34 Local Organising Committee
 

Important Dates

Registration Fees

All registration fees are in Australian dollars and inclusive of Australia’s 10% Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Registrations are performed using the registration portal of the Whova conference platform which can be found below.

Register Now on Whova

Please contact us if you need to perform bulk registratins of more than 10 people at once and we can provide the bulk registration link.

Please contact us at rgd@rgd34.org for registrations beyond the Regular Registration period. Extra fees will apply.

Registrations are performed using the registration portal of the Whova conference platform which will be opened in the coming days.

Please contact us if you need to perform bulk registrations of more than 10 people at once and we can provide the bulk registration link.

Delegate and Student registration includes:
•    Conference registration
•    Welcome Reception on Sunday afternoon at the Dr Mary Mahoney AO Amphitheatre on the UQ campus
•    Coffee breaks and Lunch during the conference
•    Gala Dinner at The Rivershed at beautiful Howard Smith Wharves in the Brisbane CBD

Accompanying Person registration includes the following:
•    Welcome Reception on Sunday afternoon at the Dr Mary Mahoney AO Amphitheatre on the UQ campus
•    Gala Dinner at The Rivershed at beautiful Howard Smith Wharves in the Brisbane CBD

Accompanying Persons are also able to purchase tickets to the conference Social Day for the same price as delegates.

Registration Cancellation Policy

We understand that plans change and will endeavour to accommodate registration cancellations as required minus a small administration fee to recoup costs associated with fees charged for the registration payment and payment reversal. Due to the need to lock in numbers with contractors a month before the conference, we will not be able to provide refunds after this date.

Please email rgd@rgd34.org to organise registration cancellation. 

Applying for an Australian Visa

All travelers, except Australian and New Zealand citizens, must obtain a valid visa before arriving in Australia. Delegates can submit their visa applications online and use the Department of Home Affairs' visa finder tool to Explore visa options. It is highly recommended to apply at least six weeks before your arrival in Australia. For the latest visa-related information, please visit the Australian Government Department of Home Affairs.

Visa Invitation Letters

During registration, you will have the option to request an invitation letter. To assist with visa processing, you will be asked to provide certain details required by the immigration department. These details will be passed to the Australian Department of Home Affairs as confirmation of your attendance. Once your registration and payment are complete, a visa invitation letter will be sent to your registered email. Please allow up to one week for processing and verification. Please note we cannot provide support to delegates who have not completed payment.

Visa Application Status

As conference organisers, we do not have access to visa application updates—this is handled solely by the Australian Department of Home Affairs. We also do not have any influence over visa decisions. If you require an update on your application, please contact the Department of Home Affairs directly.

Visa Refusals

If your visa application is refused, we will refund your registration fee minus a small administration fee to recoup costs associated with fees charged for the registration payment and payment reversal. Proof of refusal will be required, and refunds will be processed after the symposium.

Brisbane is well connected through the Brisbane International Airport (BNE). There are regular direct flights to and from Brisbane into most of Asia and to the East Coast of the USA. Generally, major cities in the rest of the world can be accessed via a single connecting flight.

Further information about destinations which can be reached from Brisbane can be found on the Brisbane International Airport website.

Australia is far away from the rest of the world. If you are arriving from overseas, we would recommend arriving in Brisbane a couple of days before the conference begins to allow you to acclimatise to the time difference and be recovered in time to properly enjoy the conference. If you aim to arrive in Brisbane on Friday the 4th of July you will have the opportunity to participate in our Shock Tunnel Short Course on Saturday the 5th of July, the Welcome Reception on Sunday the 6th of July and to explore Brisbane city a bit before the conference starts.

Getting from the Airport to Brisbane City

There is a direct train link from both the domestic and international terminals of the Brisbane airport to the city center via the Brisbane Airtrain. The Airtrain from the international terminal to Brisbane's Central or Roma St Stations in Brisbane City is approximately 30 minutes and each fare costs $18.96AUD. For more details, please see here: https://www.airtrain.com.au/

Taxis and Ubers are also readily available to take delegates to or from the airport to Brisbane city for a cost of around $50AUD.

Brisbane is the capital of the Australian state of Queensland. Being a semi-tropical climate, Brisbane is a great place to visit in winter when RGD34 will be held.

Useful information about Brisbane and Australia such as the local climate, time zone, the type of power plug, currency, emergency phone number, whether you need to tip or not (you don't need to tip), and regular shopping hours etc. can be found in the two documents below:

(Click on the links to open the documents.)

The local attractions located in Brisbane's inner city where most people will be staying can be seen in the Brisbane tourist map below:

The following guides provide a large amount of information about things you can do in Brisbane during your time here:

(Click on the images to open the documents.)

Even more information allowing you to discover Brisbane can be found below:

A targeted list of things to do around Brisbane for accompanying persons and conference delegates who are spending more time in Brisbane in and around the conference can be found below, please just click on the image below to open the pdf. A text based version of the document can be found here for easy printing if images are not needed.

This document will not be provided printed to attendees, but we will have some printed copies available for those who want them.

There are many great places to stay Brisbane, and this guide will hopefully help point you in the right direction.

Conference Location

The University of Queensland main campus where RGD34 is to be held is in the suburb of St Lucia, an inner-city suburb south of the Brisbane Central Business District (CBD). Nearby suburbs which have close bus links with UQ as well as shopping and dinner options nearby include: Toowong, Indooroopilly, West End, South Bank, Woolloongabba, and of course the Brisbane CBD.

Public Transport

Brisbane public transport options include an extensive bus network including the new Brisbane metro rapid transit system, a train network connecting the CBD to outer suburbs, and a river ferry service called the CityCat. Currently, all Brisbane public transport fares including CityCats are reduced to a flat rate of $0.50AUD, excluding the Airtrain. Paying for public transit in Brisbane is best done via the electronic smartcard Go Card: https://translink.com.au/tickets-and-fares/go-card

These can be picked up at the airport or from local convenience shops, and you will also be able to top these up upon purchase or in specific bus stations. Ferries, trams, and trains additionally accept contactless payment via debit or credit card. 

We recommend downloading the Translink app which can be used to view bus timetables and plan your travel around Brisbane: https://translink.com.au/plan-your-journey/mytranslink

Getting from the Airport to Brisbane City

There is a direct train link from both the domestic and international terminals of the Brisbane airport to the city center via the Brisbane Airtrain. The Airtrain from the international terminal to Brisbane's Central or Roma St Stations in Brisbane City is approximately 30 minutes and each fare costs $18.96AUD. For more details, please see here: https://www.airtrain.com.au/

Taxis and Ubers are also readily available to take delegates to or from the airport to Brisbane city for a cost of around $50AUD.

Accommodation Options

We know that when choosing your conference accommodation, accessibility to the conference and the local sights that Brisbane has offer will be important aspects of your choice. The map below shows two popular bus routes to UQ from the city center, the 412 and M2 Metro bus routes, along with our hotel recommendations. We are lucky to have obtained some discounts rates with some local hotels which are also highlighted on the map below. For those who would like a scenic journey to and from the conference, we have also highlighted the CityCat ferry terminals along the river between UQ and the city center. Currently, all Brisbane public transit fares including CityCats are reduced to a flat rate of $0.50AUD, excluding the Airtrain.

Additionally, we have included some recommendations for other reasonably priced accommodation options within commuting distance to UQ. The main places to stay are South Bank and the Brisbane CBD, where they are also many restaurants to go out to dinner in the evening, and also several options in Toowong or Taringa which are physically closer to the university, but further from the city. This list is by no means exhaustive and for more options we recommend exploring the Discover Brisbane section of the main RGD34 website or the following page: https://visit.brisbane.qld.au/accommodation

Hotel Discount Rate Recommendations

The second map here provides information about the locations of various inner city Brisbane attractions which conference delegates may want to visit around the conference:

The greater South East Queensland region has many great things to see such as native wildlife, whale watching, hiking, wineries, and the great beaches of the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast.

The image below shows some of the different types of experiences available in South East Queensland. The second image below shows the driving distance to some of these locations.

Further information about Queensland will be forthcoming but a wealth of information about what one can do in Queensland can be found on the Queensland tourism website here: https://www.queensland.com/

Australia is an amazing and diverse country and we hope that you will be able to take some time before or after the conference to experience some other parts of Australia while you are here. A wealth of information about Australia can be found at the following website: https://www.australia.com

The Brisbane Domestic Airport is connected to almost everywhere in Australia, allowing delegates easy access to other parts of Australia:

The following brochures about Brisbane include important information for delegates and guests about Australia such as the currency used in Australia, tipping etiquette (tipping is not expected in Australia), the electricity supply and plug used in Australia (240/250 volts AC at 50 Hz), the Australian emergency number (000), shopping hours, the drinking age, sun safety and other important information.

The template for paper submissions is the standard Springer conference paper template. Both Word and Latex templates and further information can be found at the following link: https://www.springernature.com/gp/authors/publish-a-book/step-by-step-conference-proceedings

Paper length should be at least 6 pages and no more than 8 pages for regular papers and no more than 10 pages for invited papers.

Further information about the paper submission process will be forthcoming.

Each presentation will be allocated 20 minutes including questions and changeover. We recommend aiming to speak for no longer than 15 minutes to allow time for discussion. To ensure consistent timing across multiple parallel sessions, start and end times for each presentation will be strictly adhered to.

We are not providing a presentation template so you are welcome to use your own presentation template and to save your presentation as either a Microsoft PowerPoint or a pdf file. If your presentation includes any videos or animations, please check that they are working on your machine before submission.

Further presentation information will be added as required closer to the event.

No specific template is stipulated for posters. There are no general formatting rules or templates, you can design your poster to best convey the content of your work.

Posters should be ideally printed on A0 paper (841 x 1189mm / 33.1 x 46.8 inches) and aligned in portrait orientation. However, the poster partitions available are 1200 mm wide, so they will accomodate posters in landscape also if so desired. If needed, other acceptable poster sizes are ANSI E (864 x 1118 mm / 34 × 44 inches) and Arch E (914 x 1220 mm / 36 x 48 inches).

Presenters are responsible for printing their own posters in hardcopy and bringing them to the conference.

The conference Poster Session will occur in Room 49-301 on Tuesday afternoon. 

During the poster session, poster presenters are expected to remain with their posters to talk to other delegates about their poster.

You will be able to set up your poster in the Poster Session room from first thing Monday morning. Each poster will be given a number in the program and should be placed on the partition with that number. Pins to hang the posters will be provided, but you are expected to have printed your poster and brought it with you to the conference.

Please ensure that at the very latest your poster is installed by 3PM on Tuesday afternoon, but we would appreciate if you install your poster earlier so others can browse the poster space at other times when they are able to.

After the Poster Session, you may remove your poster or leave it up until Wednesday afternoon when the posters will be taken down. Any posters left over after the conference will be disposed of.