Arizona State University is one of the premier metropolitan public research universities in the United States. Enrolling more than 57,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students on three campuses in metropolitan Phoenix, ASU maintains a tradition of academic excellence in core disciplines, and has become an important global center for innovative interdisciplinary teaching and research. ASU offers outstanding resources for study and research, including libraries and museums with important collections, studios and performing arts spaces for creative endeavor, and unsurpassed state-of-the-art scientific and technological laboratories and research facilities. The main campus is in Tempe, a college town in the midst of the dynamic Phoenix metropolitan region.

The main conference will be located at the Tempe Mission Palms and Conference Center, http://www.missionpalms.com/. This hotel is conveniently located adjacent to ASU, and is in downtown Tempe.

Attractions in Greater Phoenix Metro

Taliesin West: Frank Lloyd Wright, America's most famous 20th-century architect, lived, designed and taught in Scottsdale at Taliesin West. Set on 600a c (240ha) of desert, Taliesin West is a working example of Wright's organic architecture, which uses natural forms to shape most structures. Wright moved here in 1927 and didn't finish building for 30 years. Today, the natural rock, wood and canvas structures continue to be both living quarters and a teaching establishment. Hour-long guided tours are given daily. Taliesin West is about 10mi (16km) northeast of Phoenix.

Heard Museum: One of the world's leading repositories of Native American art, the Heard Museum is known for its quality exhibitions and exciting events and programs that celebrate the vitality and creativity of Native cultures and art. The mission and philosophy of the Heard Museum today is to educate the public about the heritage and the living cultures and arts of Native peoples, with an emphasis on the peoples of the Southwest. More than seven decades of history have transformed the world famous Heard Museum into what USA Today describes as “the nation's most prestigious private Indian arts center.” The Kachina doll collection is outstanding, as are the audiovisual displays, live demonstrations and bookshop, which has the area's best selection of Native American arts and crafts. The Heard is on the northern outskirts of downtown, about 4mi (7km) from the capitol.

Attractions in Arizona

Grand Canyon: An exceptionally deep, steep-walled canyon in northwestern Arizona, excavated by the Colorado River. The Grand Canyon is 446 k m (277 mi) long, up to 29 km (18 mi) wide, and more than 1500 m (5000 ft) deep. The entire canyon is extremely beautiful, containing towering buttes, mesas, and valleys within its main gorge. A spectacular section of the can yon, together with plateau areas on either side of it, are preserved as the Grand Canyon National Park, which receives about four million visitors a year. It is about fours hours drive from Phoenix, and the south rim can be easily explored in a day trip.

Lake Powell: This lies in Utah and Arizona, straddling the state line between the two, has been called one of the most beautiful places on earth. The crystal-clear water reflects the towering red canyon walls that rise hundreds of feet straight up from the depths of the blue-green waters. Magnificent spires, arches and sandstone bluffs create a visual contrast with the waters below. It's a desert oasis with a little something for everyone - a rugged landscape enveloped in a softness that has to be seen in person to be believed.

Covering 266 square miles, Lake Powell is 186 miles long and has 1,960 miles of shoreline. Much of that shoreline is made up of brilliant red, pink and brown vertical canyon walls, rising hundreds of feet straight up in the air. Those walls also extend straight down into the water, sometimes hundreds of feet. Places in the lake are 500 feet deep.

Monument Valley: Monument Valley, with its redrock buttes and spires rising hundreds of feet into a boundless blue sky, is one of the West's most-photographed natural wonders. This land of red sandstone can take a visitor's - and moviegoer's - breath away. The towers, with names like the West Mitten, Gray Whiskers, Elephant and Three Sisters, drew the attention of director John Ford, who featured them in the John Wayne westerns Stagecoach (1939) and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949). They also have played a part in the more recent movies National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) and Forrest Gump (1993). As a result, Monument Valley became an icon of the Old West.

Monument Valley's towers, which range in height from 400 to 1,000 feet, are made of De Chelly sandstone, which is 215 million years old, with a base of organ rock shale. The valley's earlier inhabitants included the Anasazi who also built Mesa Verde, and archaeologists have recorded more than 100 ancient Anasazi sites and ruins in the valley dating before 1300, when the ancient tribe abandoned the area. Navajos have herded sheep and other livestock in the area for generations.