To the organising committee of the International Congress on Advanced Materials Sciences and Engineering
Keith S. Taber
Dear Eve
Thank you for your kind invitation to be an invited speaker at the International Congress on Advanced Materials Sciences and Engineering (AMSE-2020). It is an honour that such esteemed colleagues as Professors Hans Fecht, Yoon-Bong Hahn, and Subhash C. Singhal, would feel that I can offer something of value to your Congress.
I was very taken that the committee felt that my paper on 'Upper Secondary Students' Understanding of the Basic Physical Interactions in Analogous Atomic and Solar Systems' should be considered to make such 'valuable contributions' that you would like me to speak at your session on 'Materials and Energy'. I am aware that traditionally in scholarly circles, personal speaker invitations of this kind are seen as prestigious and are very much welcomed by those looking to build up a résumé/curriculum vitae.
Of course, I am honoured to be invited as a speaker, and to know that my work on secondary students' understandings of atomic and solar systems is held in such high esteem by your committee. However, I was somewhat surprised that the committee (I assume all busy leading experts in areas of materials science) would even be aware of my work, and frankly I am not sure why this work would justify you inviting me to speak to a congress of materials scientists.
I am sure that AMSE-2020 is intended to be a serious academic conference designed to share experts' cutting-edge research among a specialist field (rather than, say, just generate income for the organisers by signing up anyone who can be sufficiently flattered by a personal invitation) and so your committee must be very careful and highly selective in issuing personal invitations to potential speakers. This would suggest that your committee can appreciate much better than I can why my work would be of sufficient interest to experts in advanced materials science and engineering for them to wish to hear about it first hand.
I imagine that your committee and delegates put a high premium on science education and care very much about the future supply of well qualified young people into science and engineering fields, and it is gratifying to know that they find time to take an interest in educational research. I do wonder, however, if those attending the congress really want to hear about how teenagers make sense of the forces at work within atoms and the solar system rather than about current developments in their own field. Therefore I feel I must decline your kind invitation
Best wishes
Keith
Dear Dr. Keith S. Taber,
Hope everything goes well with you.
International Congress on Advanced Materials Sciences and Engineering (AMSE-2020) will be held in Hilton Vienna Danube Waterfront, Austria on July 22-25, 2020.
On behalf of the Committee, We are writing this time in order not to miss your participation at this congress. Based on your valuable contributions to Upper Secondary Students' Understanding of the Basic Physical Interactions in Analogous Atomic and Solar Systems, we sincerely hope that you can be a speaker at Session 8: Materials and Energy in our congress. …
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