Novel Applications of Statistical Mechanics: A Celebration of Sidney Redner's Contributions

Boston University

Saturday and Sunday, May 10 and 11, 2014

 

Since he joined the Boston University Physics Department, Sid Redner has been a leader in applying methods of statistical mechanics to problems as diverse as economics, voter consensus, and citations of scientific articles. He has over 200 publications in refereed journals and has written two texts on statistical mechanics. In addition, he has served as Chair of the APS Topical Group in Statistical and Nonlinear Physics, has been Associate and Acting Chair, and most recently Chair of the Physics Department. After 36 years at Boston University, Sid is embarking on a new path at the Santa Fe Institute. To celebrate Sid's contributions to both statistical physics and Boston University, we will be holding a meeting in his honor.

The meeting will be held at the Photonics Center, Room 906, on Saturday, May 10, Directions to 8 Saint Mary's St., and in the Metcalf Science Center, Room 109 on Sunday, May 11, Directions to 590 Commonwealth Avenue.

The registration fee is $30 for both Saturday and Sunday or $20 for Saturday and $15 for Sunday. The registration fee for students, post-docs, and retirees is $10 for both days. Registration includes the cost of coffee/tea and lunch.

The cost of the Saturday evening banquet is $50 ($35 for students and post-docs). The banquet will be held on the 9th floor in the Management Building, 595 Commonwealth Ave., which is just across the street from the Metcalf Center.

The deadline for registration and purchasing banquet tickets was Monday, May 5.

Saturday, May 10
Photonics Center, Room 906, 8 Saint Mary's St.

8:00 - 9:00 am Continental Breakfast and Registration
9:00 - 10:30 am Michael El-Batanouny, Boston University, Chair Session I
9:00 - 9:30 am David Nelson, Harvard University “Population genetics of three-dimensional range expansions,” abstract
9:30 am-10:00 am Peter Reynolds, Army Research Office “Chemistry, electronics, lattice models and more - in thin air: A story about optical lattices,” abstract
10:00 am-10:30 am Paul Krapivsky,, Boston University “A kinetic view of statistical physics,” abstract
10:30 am-10:50 am Coffee Break
10:50 am-12:50 pm David Campbell, Boston University, Chair Session II
10:50 am-11:20 am H. Eugene Stanley, Boston University “Switching without switches and the fragility of interdependency, with applications to failure cascades in biomedical physics and economics,” abstract
11:20 am-11:50 am Wonmuk Hwang, Texas A & M “Orientational linear epitaxy in theory and in practice,” abstract
11:50 am-12:20 pm Francois Leyvraz, UNAM “Scaling theory for gelation: A long standing riddle,” abstract
12:20 pm-12:50 pm Jon Machta, UMass Amherst “Population annealing: A new algorithm for equilibrating spin glasses,” abstract
12:50 pm-2:20 pm Lunch and Posters
2:20 pm-3:50 pm Karl Ludwig, Boston University, Chair Session III
2:20 pm-2:50 pm Eli Ben-Naim, LANL “Kinetics of Brownian maxima,” abstract
2:50 pm-3:20 pm Gabriel Redner, Brandeis University “Phase behavior of active colloids”
3:20 pm-3:50 pm Charles Doering, University of Michigan “Features of fast living: On the weak selection for longevity in degenerate birth-death processes,” abstract
3:50 pm-4:10 pm Coffee Break
4:10 pm-5:40 pm Rama Bansil, Chair Session IV
4:10 pm-4:40 pm Mauro Mobilia, University of Leeds “Zealotry, persuasion and polarization in voter models,” abstract
4:40 pm-5:10 pm Kipton Barros, LANL “Coarsening dynamics in Ising ferromagnets and a connection to critical percolation,” abstract
5:10 pm-5:40 pm Bill Klein, Boston University “The relation between economic growth and economic equality,” abstract
6:30 pm Banquet 9th Floor, Management Building

Posters

Because the number of invited speakers is limited, participants are encouraged to give a poster during the poster session on Saturday. To give a poster, please send an email with the title of your poster to Harvey Gould.

Schedule, Sunday, May 11
Metcalf Science Center, Room 109, 590 Commonwealth Avenue
9:00 am-10:00 am Continental Breakfast and Registration
10:00 am-12:30 pm Harvey Gould, Chair Session V
10:00 am-10:30 am Daniel ben-Avraham, Clarkson University “Spatially distributed social complex networks,” abstract
10:30 am-11:00 am Tibor Antal, Edinburgh University “Multitype branching processes with biological applications,” abstract
11:00 am-11:30 am Joachim Krug, University of Cologne “Accessibility percolation,” abstract
11:30 am-12:00 pm Ganpathy Murthy, University of Kentucky, “Composite Fermions for Chern bands,” abstract
12:00 pm-12:30 pm Antonio Coniglio, University of Naples “Cluster approach to glassy dynamics with continuously broken ergodicity,” abstract
12:30 pm-1:30 pm Lunch

Parking is available in the basement of the Management building, 595 Commonwealth, directly across the street from the Metcalf Science Center. Free parking is available in the Management Building for participants planning to go to the banquet. The Management building is a two block walk to the Photonics Center, the site of the meeting on Saturday. It is possible to park on the street without difficulty, especially on Bay State Rd., but the meters are limited to four hours. Directions to Management Building.

Organizing Committee

Symposium Hotels

Please book by April 15 to receive the symposium rate at either hotel.

Please send questions and corrections to Harvey Gould, hgould@clarku.edu.

The symposium is sponsored by Boston University, Department of Physics.

Updated 9 May 2014.