Participant Testimonials

Nov 11 - Nov 16, 2012

The workshop was very useful for the following reasons. (i) I could present my work and get some valuable feedback from other participants. (ii) I met new people who could be eventual collaborators. (iii) I learnt a lot of new stuff from the talks and from the informal discussions.

Abhishek Dhar Theoretical Physics, Raman Research Institute

This was an excellent workshop. And wonderfully organized, as always in BIRS.

Tony Lelièvre CERMICS, École des Ponts ParisTech

I had several very helpful discussions concerning my research program and started a new collaboration with other two participant to the workshop that have complementary knowledge on a problem of common interest.

Carlangelo Liverani Professor
Mathematics, University of Rome Tor Vergata

This workshop was really useful for me. It was my first meeting in my research field. I am a phD student, and this workshop allowed me to have contact with many other researchers, with whom I hope to begin collaboration. Moreover, the place was the greatest one to do mathematics during one week: all was really well organized, and I spent 5 fantastic days in Banff, with these so beautiful mountains around.

Marielle Simon phD student
UMPA, Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon

The workshop was great, lots of very interesting discussions, with input from various sides, theoretical physics, probability, and numerical simulations. Energy transport in one dimension remains a lively subject with many surprises. Concretely, in the light of new numerical data, I am strongly motivated to reconsider the predictions of nonlinear fluctuating hydrodynamics.

Herbert Spohn Mathematics, Technische Universität München

I was an organizer of this workshop, and had therefore the opportunity to invite researchers whose works and papers I liked -- even though there were quite a few colleagues who I never physically met before. Needless to say, I had many discussion topics when coming to BIRS, and I looked forward meeting the very specialists of the field to get some feedback on these potential research tracks. I was delighted by the outcomes of these discussions, because, as usual, there are hints, remarks and comments which come to one's mind in an actual conversation, and which do not come out in a more constructed series of emails. In addition, there are also all these questions and issues which are raised at the end of the lectures: some inspired new research directions, some gave me new views of current problems of interest, some allowed me to revisit something I thought was settled, etc. There really was quite a biodiversity of viewpoints between physicists interested in the interpretation of results, mathematicians interest in the formal aspects of the theories, and applied mathematicians concerned about the efficiency and precision of numerical schemes. Also, the more familial size of the workshop and the cozy atmosphere of the place (in sharp contrast with the refreshing climate of the surroundings mountains) definitively triggered informal contacts and spontaneous scientific discussions between all generations of researchers, from PhD student to emeritus.

Gabriel Stoltz École des Ponts, CERMICS