International Association of Mathematical Physics

News Bulletin April 2005

IAMP Homepage This page shows the latest news items about Mathematical Physics. News items may be submitted to the Secretary.

Please send news and suggestions for forthcoming bulletins to [email protected].


Contents:

  1. Announcements
  2. New Members
  3. Messages from Associate Members
  4. Conferences
  5. New Books
  6. Search for Editor for J. Math. Phys.
  7. Sergio Fubini (1928 – 2005)

  1. Dear Members,

    Call for nominations for the Henri Poincaré Prize http://www.iamp.org/poincareprize.html

    Please send nominations by email to the president at [email protected] (which is confidential) or by mail to

    Professor David Brydges
    University of British Columbia
    Mathematics Department
    121-1984 Mathematics Road
    Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z2
    Canada

    A summary of the major accomplishments of the candidate and papers in which they occur will be helpful.

    In order for nominations to be considered we should receive them before May 31 2005.

    Larry Thomas has kindly agreed to be the new manager of the US account. Dues may be paid in US Dollars with a check made payable to IAMP to

    Prof. Lawrence E. Thomas
    Department of Mathematics
    P.O. Box 400137
    University of Virginia
    Charlottesville, VA 22904-4137
    USA

    Yours sincerely

    David Brydges, President
    Jakob Yngvason, Vice President
    Ruedi Seiler, Secretary
    Volker Bach, Treasurer

  2. New Members

    Mohamed KachkachiUniversité Hassan, Morocco
    Maziar NekoveeBritish Telecom, United Kingdom
  3. Messages from Associate Members:

    From Institute of Physics Publishing: There is a new section of Journal of Physics A devoted to Classical and Quantum Field Theory. Please take a look at http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/-page=extra.3/0305-4470.

  4. Conferences:

    We have now changed the deadlines for applications. The information below will appear soon on the IAMP webpage:

    Applications for category C should be sent to the Secretary. For category C a conference program, including a list of speakers, is needed and the application should be made at least 6 weeks in advance of the conference.

    Applications for category B should be sent to the President. The application must be made at least 6 months in advance of the conference and must include a financial plan which details other sources of support. Decisions are made at three monthly intervals on Jan 15, April 15, July 15 and Oct 15.

    1. Conferences listed on the IAMP webpage receiving financial support from IAMP:
      1. May 24 – 27, 2005: Recent and future developments in Hamiltonian Systems: theory and applications, Institut Henri Poincaré, Paris.
      2. Jun 20 – 26, 2005: Symmetry in Nonlinear Mathematical Physics, Kiev, organizer A. Nikitin.
      3. Aug 15 – 21, 2005: IV. International Symposium "Quantum Theory and Symmetries", Varna, Bulgaria.
    2. Conferences listed on the IAMP webpage without financial support from IAMP:
      1. Jun 11 – 18, 2005: Joint Summer Research Conference in the Mathematical Sciences "Mathematical Modeling of Novel Optical Devices" , Snowbird, Utah.
      2. Jun 18 – 24, 2005: Joint Summer Research Conference in the Mathematical Sciences "Quantum Graphs and Their Applications", Snowbird, Utah.
      3. Jun 20 – Jul 8, 2005: Random Matrices, Random Processes and Integrable Systems: A Short Program of the Centre de recherches mathématiques on the campus of the Université de Montréal.
      4. Jun 27 – Jul 2, 2005: Mathematical Physics of Spin Glasses, Cortona (Italy).
      5. Jul 4 – 29, 2005: Les Houches Summer School Mathematical Statistical Physics.
      6. Sep 4 – 17, 2005: Fundamental Problems in Statistical Physics XI, Leuven, Belgium.
      7. Oct 3 – 7, 2005: Semi-groupes d'opérateurs, équations d'évolution et théorie spectrale en physique mathématique, Organisateurs: V. Zagrebnov (Prof., Univ. de la Méditerrannée), E.-M. Ouhabaz (Prof., Univ. Bordeaux 1).
  5. New Books:

    1. Herbert Spohn, Dynamics of Charged Particles and their Radiation Field, Cambridge University Press 2004.
    2. Constantin Piron, M'ethodes quantiques, Presses Polytechniques et Universitaires Romandes 2005.
  6. Search for New Editor for Journal of Mathematical Physics:

    Journal of Mathematical Physics Editor Roger Newton and Associate Editor John Challifour have informed the American Institute of Physics (AIP) that they intend to step down from their positions with the journal at the end of 2005. AIP is seeking a new Editor who will continue to advance the journal's reputation of excellence. In this process, a Search Committee chaired by Professor Cumrun Vafa of Harvard University will advise AIP regarding suitable candidates for Editor of JMP. Candidates should be well-respected scientists in mathematical physics and should have the abilities and devotion necessary to maintain and build the journal's quality and level of service to the community. The Editor will be eligible for an honorarium or compensatory payment to his or her institution; there are no geographic limitations to the Editor's location.

    Please send applications or nominations (preferably by e-mail) before 31 May 2005 to:

    JMP Search Committee
    American Institute of Physics
    jrnlpub Suite 1NO1
    2 Huntington Quadrangle
    Melville, NY 11747-4502
    USA
    E-mail: [email protected]
  7. Sergio Fubini (1928 – 2005):

    Sergio Fubini died on Saturday the 8 January 2005 after a prolonged illness. He shall be remembered not only as a theoretical physicist but as a promoter of ``scientific peace-bridges'' in the Middle East.

    Fubini was an outstanding physicist with roots at the University of Turin in Italy. He contributed to several areas including, field-theoretic dynamical basis to S-matrix concepts such as Regge singularities; algebraic formulation of current algebras, and super-convergence sum rules that played an important role in the birth of dual resonance models; factorization of the dual S-matrix, converting it into an infinite component field theory. Fubini and co-workers founded and developed the physical and mathematical principles of string theory. He was recognized by the Dannie Heinman Prize for mathematical physics in 1968, by an honorary degree of Heidelberg University, Germany and by a medal from the Italian Government.

    Fubini's skill and enthusiasm left a strong mark on the students and the institutions. He was at the University of Padua and University of Turin in Italy. He was on the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA) physics faculty during 1967-1973. Fubini and his research student Veneziano formed a research centre at MIT, which includes an exchange programme administered and funded by the Italian Nuclear Physics Institute (INFN) and by MIT. He was an active member of the CERN directorate (January 1971 to December 1980) under the directors John ADAMS and L�on VAN HOVE respectively. He played an important role in the planning stage of the Large Electron Positron Collider (LEP) at CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics).

    In later years Fubini devoted his international standing in physics to promote peace in the troubled region of the Middle East. He organized the ``Sinai Physics Meeting'', at the Egyptian resort of Dahab, on the Gulf of Aqaba, in November 1995 [1-2]. This historic meeting brought together Arab, Israeli and Western physicists. It led directly to the formation of the ``Middle East Scientific Cooperation (MESC)''. MESC constitutes a network of scientists promoting research cooperation between Europe, the USA and the Middle East. The novel idea of an international synchrotron radiation facility in the Middle East emerged from the MESC workshop in 1997. During this workshop Herman Winick of SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, California, USA) and Gustav-Adolf Voss, a former director of DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Hamburg, Germany) suggested using the components of Berlin's BESSY-I machine, scheduled to be closed down in 1999, as the core facility for a new laboratory in the Middle East. At the request of Fubini and Herwig Schopper (director of CERN during 1981-1988) the German government agreed to donate the decommissioned synchrotron to the Middle East (the only region other than Africa without a synchrotron) [3]. Rest is all history: BESSY-I was relocated to Jordan and the synchrotron laboratory with the epic name of SESAME (Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) was put under the auspices of UNESCO. SESAME, now in the advanced stages of completion, has evolved from a vision to a system [4]. Fubini shall be missed by his friends and collaborators who had the great opportunity of knowing him and of interacting with him. Fubini accomplished in producing three ``generations'' of eminent theoretical physicists: Sergio Fubini was the research supervisor of Gabriele Veneziano, who was the research supervisor of Henry Tye, who was the research supervisor of Keith Dienes! Fubini's name is forever linked with MESC and SESAME. Fubini is survived by his wife Marina and daughter Emma Kusner.

    References:

    1. Roman Jackiw, Arabs, Israelis and Westerners attend first Sinai physics meeting, Physics Today, 49 (2), 11-13 (February 1996).
    2. Roman Jackiw and Sameen Ahmed Khan, Fubini and Salam inspired plans for Mideast Synchrotron, Physics Today, 53 (1), 78 (January 2000).
    3. Sameen Ahmed Khan, The Middle East Synchrotron is Launched; Armenian Synchrotron; To Launch the African Synchrotron Programme, AAPPS Bulletin, 13 (2), pp. 35-36 (April 2003).
    4. SESAME Website: Website: http://www.sesame.org.jo/

    (Contributed by Sameen Ahmed Khan, Mar 10, 2005).


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