LET'S FACE CHAOS THROUGH NONLINEAR DYNAMICS
at the University of Maribor, Slovenia
22 June - 6 July 2014
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9th International Summer School/Conference LET'S FACE CHAOS THROUGH NONLINEAR DYNAMICS at the University of Maribor, Slovenia 22 June - 6 July 2014 |
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Chaos, either classical or quantum, conservative or dissipative, pure
or applied, has become a fashionable subject of pronounced activities of nonlinear
science during the recent decades. It is attracting the attention of not merely
scientists in the relevant and related multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary scientific
fields but even of philosophers or writers, coming up in daily papers and popular
magazines. It often gives rise to turbulent controversies and disputes concerning
its scientific merit and its practical use. Today, this field of research is very
well established, it is immensely important in both pure science and in technology,
and in fact might be considered as one of the scientific revolutions of 20th Century,
extending its fast development into the 21st Century. It has a great and very important
future for many centuries to come. In broader sense, it simply encompasses the totality
of complex systems in nature, technology and society. This summer school and conference
will put a great emphasis on the physics of complex systems, including the socio-economic
sciences and the future information and communication technologies.
In August 1992, a group of students at the University of Ljubljana, led by the initiator
Mrs. Maja Malus, came up with the idea to organize a summer school covering the
variety of topics in pure and applied research on chaos. The main organizational
effort was undertaken by the voluntary student staff under the direction of Maja
Malus, then undergraduate student of electrical engineering at the University of
Ljubljana and with active support of the international student association IAESTE.
The scientific advisory board of the School (Professors Igor Grabec, Marko Robnik
and Aneta Stefanovska) set up in March 1993, enjoyed the enthusiasm of the students,
their devotion and hard work which eventually resulted in a very successful meeting.
Financial support of many Slovenian sponsoring and donating companies and institutions,
especially IBM Slovenia and the Ministry of Science and Technology, was highly appreciated
and acknowledged. The hard and enthusiastic work of the student staff, the technical
organizer of the School, was crowned with the prestigious charter and the golden
tablet of the University of Ljubljana, for the "...exceptional achievements in
organizing the International Summer School...".
The Summer School has become a tradition now: The second School was held at the
University of Ljubljana in August 1994 (one week), and the third one on 24 June
- 5 July 1996 at the University of Maribor, as a part of the activities of CAMTP.
The 4th School/Conference held at CAMTP, University of Maribor, on 27 June - 11
July 1999 was again very successful indeed, for we had 37 invited lecturers from
all over the world, from all continents, and in total about 105 participants. The
fifth School/Conference, held traditionally at CAMTP on 30 June - 14 July 2002,
was even stronger, as we had 40 invited lecturers and speakers from all over the
world, and altogether about 130 participants. This tradition continues.
All Schools were strongly international, in the sense that about 90% of all participants
(lecturers and "students") were from abroad. The lecturers, about twelve in 1993
and 1994, and about 27 in 1996, 37 in 1999, 40 in 2002, 46 in 2005, 46 in 2008,
48 in 2011, were from among the leading scientists in the relevant scientific disciplines,
from many countries worldwide, including USA, Canada, Russia, Japan, Western and
Eastern Europe, Israel, Australia, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, China and/with Hong
Kong, etc. The School was intellectually dignified by the attendance and the lectures
of such distinguished scientific scholars as Professor Boris Chirikov from Novosibirsk,
Russia, Professor Siegfried Großmann from Marburg, Germany, Professor Giulio
Casati from Como, Italy, Professor Erik Mosekilde from Lyngby, Denmark, Professor
Uzy Smilansky from Rehovot, Israel, Professor Hermann Haken from Stuttgart, Germany,
Professor Predrag Cvitanovic from Atlanta, Professor Oriol Bohigas from Orsay, France,
Professor Giovanni Gallavotti from Rome, Italy, Professor George Contopoulos from
Athens, Greece, Professor Yoshiki Kuramoto, Kyoto, Japan, Professor Yoji Aizawa
from Tokyo, Japan, Professor Tassos Bountis from Patras, Greece, Professor Theo
Geisel from Göttingen, Germany, Professor Pierre Gaspard from Brussels, Belgium,
Professor Hans A. Weidenmüller from Heidelberg, Germany, and many others.
It should be mentioned that since 2002 we have the tradition that the Summer School
& Conference is dedicated to some prominent physicist, namely: Hermann Haken
in 2002 on occasion of his 75th birthday, Siegfried Grossmann in 2005 on occasion
of his 75th birthday, Giulio Casati in 2008 on occasion of his 65th birthday and
Predrag Cvitanovic in 2011 on occasion of his 65th birthday. This year, in 2014,
it is dedicated to Professor Theo Geisel, Director of the Max-Planck-Institute of
Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, also at the University of in Göttingen,
on occasion of his 65th birthday. More about that please see on page 11.
Therefore our 9th International Summer School/Conference "Let's Face
Chaos through Nonlinear Dynamics" is a natural continuation of this tradition, again
in the same environment as in 2011, 2008, 2005, 2002, 1999 and 1996, namely at the
University of Maribor, as one of the activities carried out by CAMTP, in the period
22 June through 6 July 2014. This environment proved indeed to be ideal for such
purposes for many reasons, including the rich cultural life offered by the marvelous
performances on the world top level of the Maribor Festival Lent, the sportific
facilities, the mountains and hiking there, the excellent local Slovenian wines
and wine tasting tour, the touristic attractions, our excellent private concerts
performed by our young Slovenian musicians, exhibitions of fine arts, excursions
through Slovenia, fireworks that accompany the closing of the Festival Lent, etc.
This time we shall again enjoy some very interesting public evening lectures.
The scientific programme is covering the broad interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary
field of nonlinear dynamics and synergetics, concerning applications and manifestations
of chaos in diverse fields of human knowledge, ranging from mathematics to physics
and chemistry, from medicine to economy, from biology to engineering, and includes
even sociological aspects. It seems natural for us to speak about chaos versus order
in an interdisciplinary context. The organizers of this School/Conference share
the belief that interdisciplinary trends and developments in science are of primary
importance, especially in order to counteract the strongly increasing specialization
taking place in the science and technology in our most modern era, however certainly
not at the expense of the quality of the disciplinary research: In order to achieve
strong interdisciplinarity we certainly need in the first place strong disciplinarity.
There is an obvious and urgent need for meetings of this kind, giving an opportunity
of scientific exchange among seemingly distant disciplines, and, most of all, allowing
students and junior scientists to better understand the role of interdisciplinary
research, and to bring them in touch with science in making. And to offer them the
opportunity to present their own research work (in short reports and posters). To
promote most talented young people from all over the world.
It should be emphasized that the physics of complex systems, nonlinear dynamics
and synergetics are surely one of the major branches of science and research in
the 21st Century, along with elementary particles, astrophysics, biophysics, molecular
biology, genetics, medicine, economy, psychology, sociology, new technologies like
nanotechnologies, almost all of which are in fact also to some considerable extent
the area where the nonlinear dynamics is applicable in an important way. As such
the nonlinear dynamics paves the way of future science and technology of complex
systems in the 21st Century. This includes the future information communication
technologies and the socio/economic sciences.
The level at the beginning of each lecture course (delivered by invited lecturers
as a series of one-hour (60 minutes) lectures) will be adapted mainly to graduate
students (who represent the 80% majority) but also will be useful to the advanced
undergraduate students (3rd to 5th year), and finally there are also many junior
and senior postdocs, junior scientists/professors and senior scientists/professors),
whilst in closing the series of lectures (the last third or so) may be and typically
will be at the conference level, containing the most recent results comprehensible
for the majority of the audience and subject to the discussion among the attending
invited speakers, experts and specialists.
The structure of the School & Conference this year will be quite similar to
the previous one, the 8th, in 2011.
In the first week we shall have mainly school programme consisting of the following
five lecture courses (one hour = 60 minutes):
The abstracts of the lecture courses are appended at the end of this
information brochure. See page 27.
In the second week we shall have the conference programme, but nevertheless the
lectures will still be at the colloquium level, thus including a good introduction
for the students, nonspecialists and general physics audience. The detailed programme
will be set up in the middle of May 2014.
The session for short reports (contributed talks) presented by the participants
will be mainly on Saturday 28 July 2014 in the morning until lunch time. The posters
will be on display during the entire period of the School/Conference, that is two
weeks.
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Last modified: 26 December 2013 by chaos@uni-mb.si |
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