This Pan American Advanced Studies Institutes (PASI) award, jointly supported by NSF and the Department of Energy (DOE), will take place in Bariloche, Argentina in the spring of 2002, on the topic of modern challenges in statistical mechanics and its applications. Organized by Dr. V.M. Kenkre of the University of New Mexico, the institute will bring scientists from several fields together to conduct an intensive school for students from the U.S and Latin America focused on two major areas: nonlinear phenomena and pattern formation in biology, and the validity of the methodology of statistical mechanics for complex fluids. A third focus area on modern computational methods in statistical mechanics will serve as general support for the other two.
The subjects discussed will center around current areas of much activity in statistical mechanics, in particular: in the formation of patterns, the role of noise in inducing order as well as disorder, and applications and implications of statistical mechanics to complex systems in biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, and other contexts. Dissemination of this PASI will be accomplished by publishing the proceedings of the school in book form.
