Handling editor: Yingfei Yi
by Jianhong Wu and Huaiping Zhu
In the colorful fall of 2008, from September 24 to 28, the
International Conference on Infinite Dimensional Dynamical Systems was
held at York University, Toronto. Among the 80 participants from all
over the world, 48 invited speakers presented their work which covers
wide range of topics of infinite dimensional dynamical systems
generated by parabolic partial differential equations, hyperbolic
partial differential equations, solitary equations, lattice
differential equations, delay differential equations, and stochastic
differential equations.
The organizers were:
- John Mallet-Paret, Brown University
- Jianhong Wu, York University
- Yingfei Yi, Georgia Institute of Technology
- Huaiping Zhu, York University
Infinite dimensional dynamical systems are generated by evolutionary
equations, describing the evolutions in time of systems whose states
are described by infinite dimensional phase spaces. Studying the
long-term behaviors of such systems aids in the understanding of
spatiotemporal pattern formation and global continuation. It has been
a motivation for new developments in the mathematical theory of
nonlinear analysis. It has also been used in understanding
applications in physical, chemical and life sciences. The invited
speakers each gave 40 minute talks. Their contributions will be
published in a special volume of Fields Institute Communications.
For a full schedule, see the conference website:
http://www.fields.utoronto.ca/programs/scientific/08-09/dynsys/
The conference was in honor of George Sell's 70th birthday.
The conference was dedicated to Professor George Sell from
University of Minnesota on the occasion of his 70th birthday.
Sell's work is in the fields of non-autonomous dynamical systems,
skew-product flows, invariant manifolds theory, infinite dimensional
dynamical systems, approximation dynamics, and fluid flows. He
obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan in
1962. He joined the faculty of the School of Mathematics at the
University of Minnesota in 1964, following two years of Benjamin
Pierce Instructorship at Harvard University. At Minnesota, he was
the co-founder of The Institute for Mathematics and Its Applications
(IMA) and the founding director of the Army High Performance
Computing Research Center. He is the author of nine books,
over one hundred research articles, has served on the
boards of several other journals, and is the founding editor of the Journal
of Dynamics and Differential Equations. Sell is a
recipient of honorary doctorate degree from University of
St. Petersburg and an invited address at the 1982 International
Congress of Mathematicians.
Shui-Nee Chow chaired the MITACS public lecture.
George Sell giving the MITACS public lecture. The last
slide has one sentence "May you live in excited times!"
At the conference, Sell delivered a public lecture titled "An
evolution in evolutionary equations," sponsored by Mathematics for
Information Technology and Complex Systems (MITACS). Shui-Nee Chow
chaired the public lecture, briefly summarizing Sell's mathematical
contributions. Sell presented some of the history of last fifty years
of the theory of infinite dimensional dynamical systems. Inspired by a
conversation with a Chinese scholar, Sell ended his lecture with the
line "May you live in excited times!"
Gerry Sell and John Mallet-Paret give personal anecdotes of George Sell's life and work.
A special feature presentation was jointly given by John
Mallet-Paret
and Gerry Sell, relating personal anecdotes both from
George's mathematics and from his life: participants got a glimpse
of the evolution of evolution equations and the dynamics of the study
of dynamical systems.
A birthday banquet of more than 80 participants included a birthday cake
with candles.
Our best wishes to Professor George Sell!