Fondation Francqui-Stichting
Fondation d’Utilité Publique -  Stichting van Openbaar Nut

Complex Systems: a Fundamental Science Perspective

(Hotel le Méridien, Brussels, September 3-6, 2008)
 

Programme

Wednesday September 3, 2008

9:30-10:00   Professeur Pierre Van Moerbeke, Executive Director Francqui Foundation & Université Catholique de Louvain - Belgium - Welcome address

10:00-11:00 Professor Grégoire Nicolis, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Interdisciplinary Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems - Belgium - Nonequilibrium complex systems, networks and information processing

Coffee break

11:30-12:30 Professor Steven Smale, University of California, Dept. of Mathematics, Berkeley –USA - Theory of consensus and flocking

Lunch

14:00-15:00 Professor Gregory Chaitin, IBM Research - New York-USA - Leibniz, Complexity and Incompleteness
15:00-16:00 Professor Peter Grassberger, University of Calgary, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy - Canada - Mutual information : from time sequences to sequence alignment

Coffee break

16:30-17:30 Professor Itamar Procaccia, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Dept. of Chemical Physics, Rehovot–Israel - How mysterious is the mysterious glass transition ?
 

* * *

Thursday September 4, 2008

10:00-11:00 Professor Hermann Haken, Universität Stuttgart Institut für Theoretische Physik, Germany - Synergetics : from lasers to brains

Coffee break

11:30-12:30 Professor Predrag Cvitanovic, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Physics, USA - Geometry of turbulence : a stroll through 61,506 dimensions

Lunch

14:00-15:00 Professor J. Robert Dorfman, University of Maryland, Institute for Physical Science and Technology, USA - Adventures in kinetic theory
15:00-16:00 Professor Giovanni Gallavotti, Universitá di Roma La Sapienza, Dipartimento di Fisica, Italy - Thermostats and reciprocity

Coffee break

16:30-17:30 Professor Christopher Jarzynski, University of Maryland, Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Institute for Physical Science and Technology, USA - What have we learned recently about the arrow of time ?

* * *

Friday September 5, 2008

10:00-11:00 Professor Mitchell J. Feigenbaum, The Rockefeller University, New York–USA -  Pattern Selection and Distant Boundaries

coffee break

11:30-12:30 Professor Raymond Kapral, University of Toronto, Chemical Physics Theory Group, Dept. of Chemistry, Canada - Synthetic Self-Propelled Nanomotors

Lunch

14:00-15:00 Professor Peter Schuster, Institut  für Theoretische Chemie, Wien-Austria - Complex behaviour from simple molecular systems
15:00-16:00 Professor Bailin Hao, Fudan University, Department of Physics, China - Nice pieces of mathematics from real genome data

Coffee break

16:30-17:30 Professor Jean-Louis Deneubourg, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Interdisciplinary Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems, Belgium - Collective decision-making : insects and robots

* * *

Saturday September 6, 2008

10:00-11:00 Professor Uzy Smilansky, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Dept. of Physics of Complex Systems, Rehovot-Israel - Can one count the shape of a drum?

coffee break

11:30-12:30 Professor Stuart A. Rice, University of Chicago, USA - Control of Dynamics in Complex Quantum Systems
12:30-13 :00 Professor Pierre Gaspard, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Interdisciplinary Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems, Belgium - Concluding remarks