Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Upcoming Conferences

I'll be traveling quite a bit  in the coming months. The next days I am in Boston at the SUSY '09. In July I'm at the FQXi conference in Ponta Delgada. I meant to go to the Marcel Grossman meeting in Paris, but they still haven't managed to let me know whether my talk was accepted. Meanwhile, there is no way I will ever get a hotel room around July 14th in Paris, so I won't be going. (If you are involved with the organization of that meeting, shame on you.) I'm considering to go to the "Quantum to Cosmos" meeting in Bremen, but haven't yet made up my mind, and later I'll be at the Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy in, oohm, Atlanta I guess. Besides that I will probably be busy with my upcoming move

For my recent trip to Denver I obviously forgot that visitors to the USA are now supposed to apply online for a "travel authorization." Thus, a dismayed officer left an url in my passport to remind me to fill out the webform in a timely manner for my next trip. After I figured the ESTA website doesn't load at all with Google Chrome, I indeed managed to submit the relevant data and hope to have a smooth trip.

Should our paths cross at any of these places, it is always nice to meet readers, so don't hesitate to say hello!

Ooops, just read the registration fees for the Bremen meeting, I'm not going.

12 comments:

  1. Hey, I'm a student! I will get a 100€ discount in Bremen! *registering*

    They can't be serious, can they? Or is this what physics conferences are like? In that case, I'm switching to mathematics.

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  2. Good lord !

    Q2C4 is indeed an expensive conference ! Is there something really special about that conference ? Is it possible they made a mistake ?

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  3. Hi Bee,

    That’s quite an itinerary. Looking down the list that FQXi conference looks to be the best of the lot. Having scanned the attendees names it’s quite an assortment of researchers and viewpoints. You have Alan Guth the original Big Banger, Garret Lisi all is geometry, Max Tegmark all is mathematics, Paul Davies time is of the essence, along with many present and past Perimeter people like Smolin, Markopoulou, Dreyer and of course yourself. I must admit however the two that jumped off the list for me are Shelly Goldstein and Antony Valentini both Bohmians. One thing for certain this is another conference where again I would like to be just that fly on the wall as I’ve said before. Oh yes I also spotted another Bohmian connection with Yakir Aharonov who collaborated on their now famous effect paper. This should be a good one and I hope it will be inspiring enough that you might post a few words about it at some point.

    Best,

    Phil

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  4. Hi Oddysseus, M,

    I almost wrote to them asking if there's maybe a zero too much on that numbers ;-) But it seems to include some days in a hotel (quite pricey if you ask me. I mean, Bremen isn't exactly LA). Still the fee is Eur 480 for four days (that's about 680 US$!). It's a pity though because it is probably going to be interesting. Best,

    B.

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  5. Hi Phil,

    Indeed, sounds like it's going to be interesting! However, as it often is with such meetings, half of the 'interesting' people on the list eventually don't show up. So I'll see how it goes. Stay tuned :-) Best,

    B.

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  6. Hi Bee, the SUSY 09 conference looks v interesting, I like the emphasis on phenomenology.
    I'd be interested to know if anyone mentions the O'Raifeartaigh mechanism in the talks on SUSY breaking.
    Is there a program for the FQ meeting? I couldn't see any talks listed..
    Regards Cormac

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  7. FQXi suggests that contemporary physics has not subsumed 1920s' GR and QM. Apostasy is illuminating, re the Protestant Reformation. Physics needs heretics not cardinals. However, "non tamen solam intendit interiorem, immo interior nulla est, nisi foris operetur varias carnis mortificationes" (Martin Luther - the original party animal).

    The problem s not that they are all crazy, the problem is that none of them are crazy enough.

    Homeland Severity barely speaks English much less German. Tell them what you really think of the Bill of Rights being used to play Whac-a-Mole.

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  8. Hi Bee,

    “ However, as it often is with such meetings, half of the 'interesting' people on the list eventually don't show up.”

    Well if just most of the people whom I mentioned show up would be wonderful. What I like about it is there are lot serious scientists on that list, many of which have different views and approaches. Personally I think too often most meetings are focused around people of like mind, while perhaps more can be discovered among people who are not so in agreement. I would ask for instance what would the Solvay conferences been in significance without Einstein and to a lesser degree DeBroglie?

    So I wish you a great conference and a wonderful time. Another way to look at it if nothing else is of interest perhaps you could convince Lisi to give you a few surfing lessons. That would be a real life experience of what the particle and wave experiment could be about with Shelly Goldstein giving a blow by blow explanation even with an added equation or two:-)

    Best,

    Phil

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  9. I am not interested in the conference (I do research in something very different), but I was intrigued by the notion that a large spa with wellness and beauty services is included.
    Maybe I should go and spend my days in the Jacuzzi and on the massage table. And charge it all on my research grant.

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  10. Hi Coraifeartaigh,

    The FQXi meeting doesn't have a program because as far as I know there is no program. I think it's supposed to be one of these largely self-organized meetings, we'll see how it goes. I didn't notice anybody talking at the SUSY about that topic, but then I didn't check the abstracts of the parallel sessions too closely. Best,

    B.

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  11. My name is Douglas Hemmick, and I am a science-aholic. ha ha ha

    I confess that I like that my friend of old Phil Warnell is speaking so highly of Shelly Goldstein.

    I wrote my doctorate under Shelly's guidance and he is just about the finest human being on Earth in my highly biased judgement.

    Looking forward to lots of great chats on here.

    Thanks.

    Doug

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  12. Hi Doug,

    It’s been some time. Just as a point of introduction is to say to others that you are the fellow responsible for having me understand what if anything I do about the quantum aspect of physics and at the same time be assigned no blame for what I still fail to :-)

    Best,

    Phil

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