EquaDiff 2015

Scott McCalla reports on EquaDiff 2015 held in Lyon, France.

By Scott McCalla
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EquaDiff 2015, organized by Sylvie Benzoni-Gavage and Thierry Gallay, was held at the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 from July 5th to 10th. Over 400 participants presented both applied and rigorous research ranging across all areas of differential equations. The conference consisted of 14 plenary speakers, 26 minisymposia, 33 contributed sessions, and over 50 posters. Despite its size, the schedule remained fairly open with plenty of time to meet with collaborators and interact outside of the sessions.

Each day of the conference started with well-attended plenary talks, occasionally two simultaneously, before the conference broke into parallel sessions. Each session was separated by either a half hour coffee break, or a long lunch break, and this provided ample time to digest and discuss the material presented. In this regard, EquaDiff attained the atmosphere of a much smaller conference while still meeting its goal of bringing together world experts in an incredibly vast range of topics.

The social program was also quite full, with a welcoming reception, a party where the group picture was taken, a banquet on a boat, three choices of organized activities around Lyon (bus tour, museum, or traboules), and daily lunches included. A pass for the local metro system could also be requested. These events provided a nice opportunity to explore Lyon.

Lyon maintains a beautiful old town, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It also happens to be one of the world's major culinary centers. The evenings were left free, and participants could explore some of the multi-course bouchon meals and local cuisine that have made Lyon famous. The adventurous might try the andouillette sausage or the tete de veau, but many more main stream options were also available. Lyon is also centered between two of France's major wine regions, Burgundy and the Cotes du Rhone.

Lyon unfortunately decided not to cooperate with the conference; the temperature the first few days soared over one hundred degrees fahrenheit, and the lecture rooms were not air conditioned. The organizers forewarned the attendees, and did everything they could to alleviate the heat in the lecture rooms. Individual hand fans were provided to all registrants, spray cans of water were provided for the speakers, and rotating fans were provided to prevent the overhead projectors from overheating. The participants soldiered on for the first two days, worn looking, until the temperatures dropped to a better level.

EquaDiff 2015 in the end was a useful conference with plenty of opportunities to discuss mathematics. Despite some hitches, the organizers did an excellent job of running a large conference with a very broad base of research topics.

Scott McCalla

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