RESEARCH WORKSHOP ON:

    " SELF-ORGANIZED CRITICALITY AND PHASE TRANSITIONS IN DRIVEN SYSTEMS "

			1 - 4 March 2000

 			(Miramare - Trieste, Italy)



DIRECTORS:

D. Dhar  (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai - India)


A. Stella  (Università degli Studi di Padova - Italy)


A. Vespignani  (The Abdus Salam ICTP, Trieste - Italy)




	The Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics
(ICTP), Trieste - Italy, is organizing the Research Workshop on:
"Self-Organized Criticality and Phase Transitions in Driven Systems" to be
held at the ICTP from 1 to 4 March 2000.  This activity will be directed
by: Deepak Dhar (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai - India),
Attilio Stella (Università di Padova - Italy) and Alessandro Vespignani
(The Abdus Salam ICTP, Trieste - Italy).
	Self-organized criticality  was proposed about twelve years ago as
a conceptual framework for understanding the ubiquity of long-ranged
spatio-temporal correlations observed in many natural systems.  The
simplicity and elegance of this idea generated a lot of interest and many
attempts at modelling specific phenomena such as sandpiles, earthquakes,
punctuated equilibrium in evolution, etc.  The theoretical interest also
generated renewed activity in the experimental study of granular media, and
of burst-like relaxation in slowly driven systems in general.  Although the
success of self-organized criticality ideas as a realistic explanation of
the actual systems has remained very controversial, they have spread
rapidly also to other fields such as geophysics, biology and economics.
	The object of this Research Workshop is to bring together the
leading researchers actively working in the field of self-organized
criticality and avalanche critical phenomena in order to discuss the most
recent developments and research directions.

	The topics of this workshop are:

- SELF-ORGANIZED CRITICALITY
- AVALANCHE DYNAMICS
- NONEQUILIBRIUM CRITICAL PHASE TRANSITIONS
- EXTREMAL DYNAMICS MODELS


	Scientists and physicists from all countries that are members of
the United Nations, UNESCO or IAEA can attend the Workshop.  The main
purpose of the Centre is to help research workers from developing
countries, within a framework of international cooperation.  However,
scientists from developed countries are most welcome to attend.  The
working language of the Workshop will be English.  A limited number of 30
candidates will be selected by the Organizers.

	As a rule, travel and subsistence expenses of the participants are
borne by the home institutions.  However, some funds may become available
which permit the Centre to grant a subsistence allowance to a limited
number of people from developing countries who will be selected by the
Organizers.  As scarcity of funds allows travel to be granted only in few
exceptional cases, every effort should be made by candidates to secure
support for their fares (or at least partial fare) from their home country.
Scientists from developed countries are welcome to join but at their own
cost.  There is no registration fee for attending the Workshop.


	The closing date for receipt of requests for participation is 10
January 2000.   The completed request for participation form, printed
separately (also obtainable via e-mail: smr1254@ictp.trieste.it  by typing
on the subject line: get index), should be sent by post or fax to :

The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics
Research Workshop on: "Self-Organized Criticality & Phase Transitions"
Strada Costiera 11
34014 Trieste, Italy


Telephone:   +39-040-2240111
Telex:   460392 ICTP I
Telefax:   +39-040-224163
E-mail   smr1254@ictp.trieste.it


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   | 						 |
   | 						 |
   |           RESEARCH WORKSHOP ON:             |
   |  "SELF-ORGANIZED CRITICALITY AND            |
   |   PHASE TRANSITIONS IN DRIVEN SYSTEMS"  	 |
   |		( 1 - 4  March  2000)            |
   |             Ref. no.: smr.1254              |
   |         		 			 |
   |	at:	                		 |
   | the Abdus Salam International Centre for    |
   |   Theoretical Physics                       |
   | Strada Costiera 11  			 |
   | 34100 Trieste , Italy                       |
   |         		 			 |
   |VENUE:  ICTP Main Building			 |
   |						 |
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