The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy, is organizing a Conference on Non-Equilibrium Phenomena in Condensed Matter and String Theory, to be held in Trieste from 30 June to 4 July 2014.
Small fluctuations of systems at equilibrium or weakly driven near equilibrium satisfy a universal relation known as the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, which connects spontaneous fluctuations to the linear response. The search for similar relations for systems far from equilibrium has been an important problem for many years with applications in Condensed Matter and Atomic Molecular Optical systems, as well as ion collisions at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and at Large Hadron Collider. 
Presently, many important questions remain unanswered, such as identifying the relevant time scales for relaxation and thermalization, finding whether there is an equivalent of the KAM theorem for quantum systems, understanding the effect of disorder and driving, among others. Making progress on those questions will require a close collaboration between experimentalists and theorists, as well as a the exchange of ideas and approaches between different fields.
This Conference will help catalyze interactions between the Condensed Matter/AMO physicists working on problems far from equilibrium with their counterparts in the High Energy physics community. It will also allow interested scientists to enter this exciting new area of research through a daily pedagogical talk.