The ninth IMACS International Conference on Nonlinear Evolution Equations and Wave Phenomena: Computation and Theory, was held this year from April 01-04 in the Georgia Center at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA and organised by Thiab Taha. There were over 300 presenters in 31 special sessions, numerous contributed papers, and a poster session.
Athens is a nice, quiet US college town with wide, tree-lined streets, quaint shops and a decent selection of restaurants for lunch and dinner. The weather in April in Georgia was very pleasant - a mild 70-odd degrees, and only one evening with a little rain. There were three hotels to choose from and all within easy walking distance of the conference center.
As the conference title suggests, the special sessions were mostly focussed on nonlinear wave phenomena, in particular on integrable systems and water waves. There were a few sessions where dynamical systems was applied to the study of nonlinear waves, for example, in the session `Geometric Techniques in the Analysis of Travelling Waves', the talks emphasised geometric singular perturbation theory and Evans function analysis for use in the study of existence and stability of travelling waves.
The conference was opened by a plenary talk on three-dimensional fluid structure interaction by Irena Lasiecka, who showed the existence of global smooth solutions to fluid problems with parabolic-hyperbolic couplings on a moving boundary. The second plenary talk by Pavlos Kevrekidis discussed systems of granular crystals. The wide-ranging talk discussed travelling wave and breather solutions in this setting, providing theoretical and experimental frameworks to understand these phenomena. Finally Sijue Wue provided a talk on two-dimensional gravity water waves, and showed that the smoothness of the solutions could be considered using an energy functional. The plenary talks were well-attended, and representative of the high quality of presentations throughout the conference.
The aptly-named conference banquet included a fantastic spread of local cuisine. Jerry Bona entertained the participants as master of ceremonies for the evening, while also reflecting on the decade-long history of the conference. He invited several participants to recount their tales from past years, and encouraged the young researchers in the room to carry the conference forward in years to come.
The meeting was very successful in that it was a great place to meet up with collaborators, discuss current and interesting research and for discussions on future research plans.
Chris Lustri & Robert Marangell