The 2013 SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical Systems (DS13) will be held at the Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort, Snowbird, Utah, May 19-23. Co-chairs of the Organizing Committee are Charlie Doering (U Michigan, Ann Arbor) and George Haller, ETH Zurich, Switzerland). As of May 14, the meeting has 707 pre-registered participants, attendance is expected to exceed 800. The program features 9 invited presentations, 136 minisymposium sessions, 191 contributed papers, and 88 contributed posters. Nancy Kopell (Boston U) will deliver the Jurgen Moser Lecture, and the SIAM Activity Group on Dynamical Systems (SIAG/DS) will present the J.D. Crawford prize to Panayotis Kevrekidis (U Massachusetts, Amherst).
This year’s Snowbird meeting will host a Featured Minisymposium on “Dynamics of Planet Earth” as part of MPE2013. The Featured Minisymposium (MS38) is organized by Hans Kaper, chair of the SIAG/DS, and will take place on Monday, May 20, 2:30 p.m. – 4:45 p.m., in Ballroom I.
The minisymposium will feature an overview talk by the organizer and four talks on specific applications of dynamical systems and bifurcation theory to the Earth’s climate system. Chris Danforth (U Vermont) will demonstrate a novel method for improving forecasts during integration of a weather model. Mary Silber (Northwestern U) will discuss tipping points in the context of bifurcation theory, using case studies of possible tipping points in models of Arctic sea-ice retreat and desertification. Marty Anderies (Arizona State U), who is interested in land use and the carbon cycle, will explore the relationship between nonlinear dynamics and planetary boundaries. Mary Lou Zeeman (Bowdoin College and Cornell U) will focus on issues of sustainability and will explore how a decision-support viewpoint may inspire new questions for dynamical systems.
The biennial Snowbird meetings offer a unique opportunity to learn about the application of dynamical systems theory to areas outside of mathematics. These application areas are diverse and multidisciplinary, ranging over all areas of applied science and engineering, including biology, chemistry, climate, geophysics, physics, finance, and industrial applied mathematics. This conference strives to achieve a blend of application-oriented material and the mathematics that informs and supports it. The goals of the meeting are a cross-fertilization of ideas from different application areas, and increased communication between the mathematicians who develop dynamical systems techniques and applied scientists who use them.