Suggestions for seminars/workshops

The Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems started its activities in Dresden in 1994. After completion of the institute's building and guest houses in 1997, the seminar and workshop program has been launched in full scale. The activities cover all research areas related to physics of complex systems, with focus on frontier subjects which develop rapidly as well as to new interdisciplinary themes. Priority is given to seminars with embedded workshops and to short focus workshops.

Seminars are research-oriented activities with a duration between 1 and 3 months in which participants are encouraged to stay for a period of time long enough to be involved in scientific collaborations. Participation of 15 - 20 scientists per seminar is envisaged. The scientific seminar program includes research work, invited talks and informal discussion rounds. Young researchers working actively on the subject can apply for a longer-term appointment (up to one year). Teaching-oriented school activities with topical lecture series are welcome as well.

Workshops will normally extend over one week and can be embedded within a seminar. Participation will be limited to 50 - 70 persons. The activity will consist of talks on advanced topics, discussions as well as research work. Research facilities (library, office space, computers etc.) will be available to participants. Another objective of workshops is the initiation of scientific collaborations.
In addition we encourage to conduct short focus workshops for 2 - 3 days and 30 - 50 participants. At variance with regular workshops, these events are more focussed on a modern subtopic of the physics of complex systems. Their short duration is especially suitable for the semester periods with unavoidable teaching load at home universities.

The scientific direction of these activities will be under the responsibility of one to three renowned scientists who have contributed substantially to the proposed research field.

The selection of proposals will be carried out by an ad-hoc committee. Deadline for the submission of applications for the year 2014 is June 30, 2012. Postdeadline proposals can be considered as well, subject to availability of funding and slots. Please check the updated program for currently available dates.

The proposal should include:
- Title + abbreviation (max. 6 letters)
- Coordinators (with title/name/address/phone/fax/email)
- Proposed dates
- What it is about
- Why it is timely
- The structure of the program
- Tentative list of invited participants (confirmed where possible) and
their preliminary contribution titles
- Number of expected participants (including applicants)
- List of external funding when available
- Expected travel funds from MPIPKS
- Expected person X days (needed for estimating local costs)

Download German Guideline (pdf)

Download English Guideline (pdf)

For further information please contact:
Dr. S. Flach, Visitors Program
Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme
Nöthnitzer Str. 38, D-01187 Dresden, Germany
Tel: +49-351-871-2103, -2198, Fax: +49-351-871-2199
e-mail: visitors@pks.mpg.de