Issue 1, 2014
Issue 6, 2007
Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek from MIT, U.S.A, is currently at Nordita as a visiting professor during the fall of 2007. Among his many research interests are the application of field theory techniques to condensed matter physics.
Nordita welcomes three new assistant professors:
as well as four new fellows:
Nordic subfield committees have been appointed:
Astrophysics/astrobiology
Condensed matter/biological physics
Subatomic physics
To get email announcements when a new edition of the Nordita Newsletter is available, please sign up on the mailman website: http://lists.albanova.se/AlbaNova/listinfo/nordita-newsletter
For details see: www.nordita.org/positions
Priority will be given to applicants in high energy theoretical physics and soft condensed matter physics/biological physics. Appointments are for three years, normally extended to five years.
Nordita Fellowships are intended for younger scientists who have an interest in the research fields represented at Nordita. Fellows normally stay for two or exceptionally three years.
The purpose of this Astrobiology meeting is to bring together people from the Nordic countries in general and Sweden in particular. There will be time for formal presentation and plenty of time for discussion. The meeting is organized jointly with the Swedish Astrobiology Network (SWAN).
Registration and further details: http://agenda.albanova.se/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=418
Local organizing committee: Axel Brandenburg (chair), Nils Holm, Raphael Plasson, Anthony Poole
Limited support for travel subsistence is available. Please email Axel Brandenburg for details.
Scientists interested in participating any of these programs are encouraged to register on the respective websites. These programs are intended to foster new research directions in the Nordic countries, so our Nordic participants are often not experts in the specific field of the program, but are interested to learn about them and to talk to the experts in the field.
Homochirality is a unique property of living matter. It is a property that gradually disappears after the death of living matter. The origin of homochirality is therefore closely linked to the origin of life, which makes this topic a prominent research field in astrobiology.
The problem of the possible origins of homochirality in living matter is frequently discussed in the literature. On the one hand, physical and external factors (e.g., the electroweak parity breaking, enhanced for example by heavy Cu complexes, as well as magnetic fields and polarized light) are hard to rule out. On the other hand, the possibility of a bifurcation process is quite plausible, but there is no unique mechanism. Possible candidates include autocatalysis combined with enantiomeric cross-inhibition in the RNA world and the activation-polymerization-epimerization-depolymerization reaction.
One purpose of this program is to establish the viability of these two different pathways, and to discuss the possibility of an interplay between them. Also the significance of crystallization experiments with stirring either for just demonstrating the effects of growth combined with competition, or as a primitive mechanism under prebiotic conditions should be discussed. Finally, quantitative aspects of approaches of involving physical and external factors should be discussed. Can some quantitative agreement be established regarding the subsequent role of amplification mechanisms and the enantiomeric excess that can be achieved? It is anticipated that such a program can be an important mile stone in this field, which is currently being attacked from the many different angles, without there being sufficient interaction between them.
The program extends over four weeks, where the last week is devoted to a symposium. Although long-term participation is strongly encouraged, it is also possible to stay for shorter periods. The number of program participants is limited to a maximum of about 20 at any time. Funding will be available to accommodate program participants in apartments, whenever possible. Desks and shared office space will be available in the Nordita building.
Organizers: Axel Brandenburg,
Raphaël Plasson, Anja C. Andersen
Information and registration: http://agenda.albanova.se/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=322
16 March - 19 April 2008
The program will start with a one-week conference in order to highlight the most recent results, identify common interests and initiate discussions. This meeting may attract a much broader audience than the long-term participants alone (about 50 participants in total). Two general discussions per week will be organized, on topics listed above, each facilitated by two mediators appointed in advance. Regular seminars (about 1 hour long), in particular presented by those participants who were unable to present a talk at the start-off conference.
Organizers: Anvar Shukurov (Newcastle UK), Kandaswamy Subramanian (Pune India), Maarit J. Korpi (Helsinki)
Further information and registration: http://agenda.albanova.se/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=325
The Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (NORDITA), since last year located in Stockholm, Sweden, will sponsor a four-week program "Physics of Distributed Information Systems", from May 5, 2008 to May 31, 2008. The main scientific theme is the application of physics in this cross-disciplinary area, ranging from algorithms to the design and dynamics of both processes and networks, the interplay with computer science, communication science and related fields of mathematics, and the statistical mechanics needed in this endeavour.
The main program will be similar in style to those run at KITP Santa Barbara and the Newton Institute in Cambridge, and follows upon a program on a similar theme at the Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics in China (KITPC), Beijing, China.
The program includes a workshop May 15-17 bringing together a larger set of participants. This will have a later deadline for participation.
Confirmed participants of the program include
Petter Holme, KTH, Sweden Supriya Krishnamurthy, Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Sweden Joachim Krug, Cologne, Germany Satya Majumdar, Orsay, France Matteo Marsili, Abdus Salam ICTP, Trieste, Italy Heiko Rieger, Saarbrucken, Germany Olav Tirkkonen, HUT Communication Science, Helsinki, Finland and Nokia Corp. Bing-Hong Wang, Hefei, China
For further, continuously updated, information, see http://agenda.albanova.se/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=296
There will be some funds available to support the participation in the related disciplines. A fraction will be use do further the involvement of Nordic scientists.
Please note that to be considered for financial support, the application must be received by December 15, 2007.
Looking forward to seeing you at this exciting program in Stockholm, in the spring of 2008!
The Organizing Committee
Erik Aurell, Stockholm Mikko Alava, Helsinki Haijun Zhou, Beijing
Two months during the spring 2008
Organizers: Katri Huitu (Helsinki), Per Osland (Bergen)
Further information and registration: http://agenda.albanova.se/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=425
→ Link to electronic preprints: www.nordita.org/preprints
Seasonal view of Nordita
If you have information about meetings or other items that would be useful to include in Nordita News, please send it to Anne Jifält, Nordita, email: anne@kth.se.