Dear all,

Tuesday, 16 March. At 14:00 in room 138 Alessio Squarcini will talk about the following papers:

[1] A.-F. Bitbol, P. G. Dommersnes and J.-B. Fournier, “Fluctuations of the
Casimir-like force between two membrane inclusions”, Physical Review E 81,
050903 (rapid communications) (2010);

[2] A.-F. Bitbol, K. Sin Ronia and J.-B. Fournier, “Universal amplitudes of the Casimir-like interactions between four types of rods in fluid membranes”, European Physics Letters, 96 (2011) 40013.

The series of Statistical Physics Journal Clubs of this year will start on

Friday, 25 January. At 10:00 in room 138 Mauro Schiulaz will talk about

Particle-Hole symmetric localization in two dimensions
Ref: O. Motrunich, K. Damle, D. Huse, Phys. Rev. B 65, 064206 (2002)

Abstract: I will introduce the properties of lattice models with pure
structural (off-diagonal) disorder, focusing on the origin of the
singularities at the band center (E=0) they display. In particular, I will
show a 2D “random surface” hopping model, which undergoes a dynamical
transition with increasing disorder.

More PhD defense for the academic year 2011/2012 will take place in the Big Meeting Room (7th floor), on Tuesday, November 20th 2012 :

• 13.30-14.30, Xiao Quan Yu, Superfluidity and localization in bosonic glasses

More PhD defense for the academic year 2011/2012 will take place in room 128/129, on Thursday, October 25th 2012 with the following schedule:

• 10.00-11.00, Francesco Buccheri, Matrix elements from algebraic Bethe anzatz: novel applications in statistical physics
• 11.00-12.00, Francesco Mancarella, Some Aspects of Anyon Thermodynamics and Chern-Simons Theory
  

The PhD defense for the academic year 2011/2012 will take place on Monday, September 17th 2012 with the following schedule:

• 9.00-10.00, Iacopo Mastromatteo, On the typical properties of inverse problems in statistical mechanics
• 14.00-15.00, Andrea De Luca, A journey into localization, integrability and thermalization
  
• 15.00-16.00, Jacopo Viti, Universal properties of two-dimensional percolation
  

The Dirac Medal Ceremony will be held in the afternoon of the 10th of July 2012 in the Main Lecture Hall of ICTP. The Dirac Medalists Eduard Brezin, John Cardy and Sasha Zamolodchikov will be introduced by Giuseppe Mussardo

Edoard Brezin, John Cardy (again him!) and Alexander Zamolodchikov are the winners of the 2011 Dirac Medal

John Cardy  and Bernard Derrida are the winners of the 2010 Boltzmann Medal