The "Ninth Mississippi State - UAB Conference on Differential Equations and Computational Simulations" will be held for two and a half days during October 4-6, 2012 at McCool Hall at Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, Mississippi. The website for this conference is www.ccs.msstate.edu/deconf/de2012. The mission of the meeting is to provide a joint forum where mathematicians, scientists, and engineers from industry, federal laboratories, and academia can exchange ideas on theoretical, applied, and computational developments in differential equations. The emphasis of this year's conference will be on reaction-diffusion equations with applications. The primary objective of the conference is to optimally fulfill the aforestated mission, while at the same time to promote research and education in mathematical and computational analysis of differential equations and associated simulations.
The conference is a collaborative endeavor between the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and the Center for Computational Sciences (CCS), a High Performance Computing Collaboratory (HPCC) member center, at Mississippi State University, and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Alabama at Birmingham. This award provides travel support to graduate students and recent Ph.D.s for an opportunity to present their work, meet other researchers, educators and practitioners, learn about recent developments in the proposed interdisciplinary field, and produce a new generation of mathematical models and challenges.
" with a mission of providing a joint forum where mathematicians, scientists, and engineers from academia and industry exchange research and education ideas involving theoretical, applied, and computational developments in differential equations and associated simulations. The conference is also to provide graduate students and young Ph.D.s an opportunity to present their work, meet other researchers, educators and practitioners, learn of recent developments in the proposed interdisciplinary field, and produce a new generation of mathematical models and challenges. Ten principal lectures were presented by the following speakers: MONICA CLAPP, "Multiple solutions to a nonlinear Choquard equation," Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico DAVID A. DIXON, "Computational chemistry for practical applications," University of Alabama MYTHILY RAMASWAMY, "Control aspects of compressible Navier-Stokes system," Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India STEVE ROBINSON, "On the variational characterization of the Fu?ík spectrum: venturing outside of Castro's strip," Wake Forest University CHI-WANG SHU, "Discontinuous Galerkin finite element methods for high order nonlinear partial differential equations," Brown University DEAN SICKING, "Computational mechanics in highway & race track safety," University of Nebraska-Lincoln EITAN TADMOR, "No artificial numerical viscosity: from the 2/3 rule to entropy stable approximations of Navier-Stokes and related equations," University of Maryland PETER TAKAC, "Time analyticity of solutions to linear parabolic systems and mathematical finance," Universitat Rostock, Germany JORGE VINALS, "Pattern formation in mesophases," University of Minnesota ZHI WANG, "The development of adaptive high-order CFD methods for aerospace applications," University of Kansas The principal lectures were from various disciplines such as applied and computational mathematics, physics, chemistry, materials sciences, mechanical engineering, and aerospace engineering all of which are concentrating on differential equations and computational simulations. In addition, a total of 64 contributed papers were presented at the conference and 132 participants from 7 different countries registered for the conference. The conference participants came from Algeria, Belgium, Columbia, Germany, India, Mexico, and the United States. The conference was also dedicated to ALFONSO CASTRO, Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College, in celebration of his 62nd birthday and his outstanding contributions to differential equations. This is a truly multidisciplinary conference with a focused theme, which is needed in the area of Differential Equations & Computational Simulations, mathematical models, mathematical and numerical analysis, computation techniques and their applications to real world problems. The Department of Mathematics and Statistics (www.math.msstate.edu) and the Center for Computational Sciences (www.ccs.msstate.edu), a High Performance Computing Collaboratory (www.hpc.msstate.edu) member center, at Mississippi State University (www.msstate.edu), along with the Department of Mechanical Engineering (www.uab.edu/engineering/home/departments-research/me) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (http://www.uab.edu), provided the perfect opportunity to assume a leadership role for this mission. Participants enjoyed the collaboration and interactions between mathematics, science, and engineering. This promoted active interdisciplinary research in the areas of differential equations and computational simulations. Another important feature of the conference is the involvement of many young researchers (especially underrepresented minorities) in mathematical sciences, including graduate students, post-doctorate associates, and new faculty. Thanks to the NSF support, we were able to support the travel expenses of a significant number of graduate students/new Ph.D.s for the past conference series. In 2005, 2007, & 2009, we supported 27, 44, & 50 young researchers, respectively. For this conference, a record number 62 graduate students and recent Ph.D.s (graduated on/after 2008) were supported by the NSF to participate in the conference. Also, partial travel expenses of principal speakers were paid from this grant. Among 62 travel supported participants, there were 16 women and 10 minority students/recent Ph.D.s. One of the unique features of the conference is the fostering of close interaction and networking opportunities between the participants. By providing three meals for two and a half days, the participants had a greater chance to network with other researchers. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were provided in the atrium of McCool Hall (the conference center) which was furnished with 15+ round tables seating up to 8 participants each to encourage networking. Also there were 6 small rooms equipped with tables and dry erase boards on the 1st & 2nd floors of McCool Hall available to help promote more conversation between the researchers. Our unique schedule and facilities initiated active research collaborations among participants. For young researchers, our unique schedule and environment also promoted close interaction with senior researchers, giving these future research leaders a greater chance of meaningful collaborations and therefore greatly enhancing their academic career. We advertised the conference on the conference website and the professional newsletters to attract more participants from broad areas in differential equations. A conference proceedings was recently published as a special issue of the Electronic Journal of Differential Equations: Conference 20, 2013.
