New directions in Dynamical SystemsDecember 7 - 11, 2009

A workshop on dynamical systems was held at the Lorenz Center in Leiden, Netherlands, December 7-11, 2009, in honour of Prof. Henk Broer's 60th birthday. The workshop covered many aspects of dynamical systems, but emphasized research areas of quasi-periodic motion, KAM theory, Hamiltonian systems, as well as bifurcation theory, applied analysis and numerical analysis, area in which Henk Broer has important contributions.

SIAG/DS election results

We introduce the new SIAG/DS team from the October 2009 elections for officers of the SIAM Activity Group in Dynamical Systems and thank those who participated in last fall's elections.

Differential Dynamical Systems

Reviewer: Oliver Junge
Technische Universität München

Homology: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Tools from the purportedly abstract field of algebraic topology are finding their way into applied mathematics, and Robert Ghrist of the University of Pennsylvania is helping lead the invasion. Ghrist and colleagues use ideas from homology to solve perplexing problems arising in sensor networks, helping to improve their coverage, robustness, and efficiency.

Evolutionary Dynamics: Exploring the Equations of Life

Reviewer: Stephen Schecter
North Carolina State University

Books in Brief

Books (and music) which caught our attention

Delayed Complex Systems and State-Dependent Delay Equations

The Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden, Germany, hosted two international meetings on delay equations: the workshop on Delayed Complex Systems, 5-9 October 2009, and the workshop on State-Dependent Delay Equations, 12-16 October 2009. Bernd Krauskopf gives some impressions.

Leading indicators of critical transitions: theory or practice?

Vasilis Dakos, Egbert van Nes, and Marten Scheffer summarize their recent results published in Nature on early-warning signals for critical transitions in a variety of systems ranging from fisheries to climate to financial markets.

Why Do Math

Inspired by the frequent need to answer the question, Why Do Math is a SIAM-sponsored website highlighting many of the exciting contributions made by computational science and mathematics to science, society, and everyday life. Though not specifically about dynamical systems, it includes many dynamical systems related topics (several of which are linked in the DSWeb Tutorials Section). The website is currently under development, but a number of tutorials are already available for view, on The America's Cup, Coclear Implants, Mathematics of Neuroscience, Space Travel, Tomography, Voting, and Wavelets.