Special Sessions

The CEC/ICMC 2025 program committee is organizing a series of special sessions which will be of interest to various attendees, including engineers/scientists, system-level developers, and industry-level representatives. These sessions will feature both special invited presentations and contributed talks.

Recent stakeholder reviews by NASA and the DOE have identified access to liquid hydrogen testing infrastructure as a barrier to the industry. Users of liquid and other forms of cryogenic hydrogen will need the ability to develop, demonstrate, and qualify new technology, components, systems, and vehicles for a multitude of possible transportation applications. In this panel, liquid hydrogen experts from several countries will discuss the development of liquid hydrogen test facilities and the challenges in developing new facilities.

Session Details: 

C2Or2B, Tuesday, May 20, 11:15 AM – 12:45 PM
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1431974/sessions/596282/#20250520

NASA has multiple different technology development and vehicle development projects that are investigating technologies for liquid hydrogen and other cryogenic propulsion applications. While these diverse applications often need similar technologies, the integration and implementation can look very different. In this panel, developments in Aeronautics, Space Technology, and the Human Lander System will be discussed.

Session Details: 

C4Or1B, Thursday, May 22, 9:30 AM – 11:30 AM
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1431974/sessions/596311/#20250522

High-field superconducting magnets are transforming modern applications in fusion reactors, and accelerators. By pushing magnetic-field boundaries, they enable breakthroughs in plasma confinement and will be the cornerstone of future particle accelerators

This Special Session is being organized to consider materials for high field magnets, for fusion and high energy physics applications. It will cover a variety of materials such as structural materials, high temperature superconductors, polymers, and composites. The overall development of applications will be also discussed, as well as the interest of a centralized and reliable dataset of properties that could be used for simulations and ultimately, for fabrication.

Session Details: 

M3Or4B, Wednesday, May 21, 4:15 PM – 6:15 PM
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1431974/sessions/596326/#20250521

Transportation I: Government Agencies and Industry Partners

Government agencies along with industry partners play special roles to identify and develop key technologies such as specialized materials, that industry-alone may not have the extended R&D timeframes needed or funding to accomplish. Given the broad range of impact of the next generation of highly efficient transportation and other relevant energy systems, this special session aims to discuss the government-industry vision and facilitate discussions, identify critical gaps, foster future partnerships, and inspire the research community to solve complex problems.

This special session will focus on transformative transportation applications with topics including cryogenic fuels and enabling technologies, their sourcing, combustion and emissions, electrolysis technologies, functionalities needed, storage, distribution, liquefaction, supply chain, life cycle costs, power system electrification, etc. and present and near-future R&D challenges and new possibilities.

Session Details: 

M1Or4A, Monday, May 19, 4:15 PM – 6:15 PM
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1431974/sessions/596315/#20250519

Transportation II-V: Systems; High Power Components, Thermal Management; Motors and Generators; Materials

The use and development of cryogenic-based technologies continues to grow steadily for all major transportation industries, including aviation, space, trucking, marine, railway, and warehouse distribution. And many new industries such as Fusion and the NASA Artemis mission with $93B budget, are contributing greatly to related technology development needed.

This session considers systems and subsystems, materials, high power components, and specific and ancillary technologies such as thermal management, needed for drivetrains and transportation. The overall development of applications will be presented, and specific R&D needs identified.

Session Details: 

M2Or4A, Tuesday, May 20, 4:15 PM – 6:15 PM
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1431974/sessions/596319/#20250520

M3Or3A, Wednesday, May 21, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1431974/sessions/596323/#20250521

M3Or4A, Wednesday, May 21, 4:15 PM – 6:15 PM
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1431974/sessions/596325/#20250521

M4Or1A, Thursday, May 22, 9:30 AM – 11:20 AM
https://indico.cern.ch/event/1431974/sessions/596327/#20250522

CALL FOR SPECIAL & JOINT SESSIONS OR PROGRAM SUGGESTIONS
The CEC and ICMC Organizers invite the community to propose Special and/or Joint Sessions within the general scope of the Conference. To submit your special and/or joint session proposal, please email the appropriate Program Chairs listed below prior to the abstract submission deadline to include the session title and abstract along with the motivation of the special and/or joint session.

Suggestions concerning the technical program, particularly topical workshops and special sessions, should be directed to the appropriate Conference or Program Chair.