MINI-WORKSHOP
   STATISTICAL MECHANICS OF COMPLEX SYSTEMS
                              Bled (Slovenia), 27 August  - 2 September, 2000

Organized by:
        - National Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana
        - Society of Mathematicians, Physicists and Astronomers
           of the Republic of Slovenia

Financially supported by:
        - Ministry of Science and Technology of Republic of Slovenia
        - European Commission, COST Chemistry Action D9
           (Advanced computational Chemistry of Increasingly Complex Systems )

PURPOSE AND BACKGROUND OF THE WORKSHOP:
Mini-workshop Statistical Mechanics of Complex Systems is meant as a real
workshop in which participants would spend most of the time in discussions
confronting different approaches and ideas. The workshop broadens the scope
of Bled workshops which started two years ago in the field of high energy physics
(What comes Beyond the Standard Model, Hadrons as Solitons, Few Quark
Problems) and have ambition to become traditional.
  We imagine the following format. The first day we shall make a survey of open
problems to be discussed during the Workshop. On successive days, three
40-minute talks related to the "Menus of the day" will be given in the morning
session, followed by lunch and afternoon discussions and elaborations, as well
as by work in small(er) groups. Further suggestions of the participants on the
format are welcome.

  PROGRAM OF HE WORKSHOP :

The programme will be structured into several topics ranging from
fundamental problems of statistical mechanics and percolation theory to
the application of statistical mechanics to complex systems, especially the
applications in bioinformatics.

The details of the scientific programme can be obtained by visiting the
ABSTRACTS  of the contributions.  However,  one should bear in mind the
fact that due to low number of participants enough time will be devoted to
discussions in which the subject of each speaker will be clarified from several
points of view and the efforts will be made to integrate the the subject into a
common scheme, or at least to draw the parallels between the topics which
may seem diverse.

  At the moment the following topics are proposed:

- Cluster picture of spin models at the critical point
- Fractal dimension of clusters appearing in the lattice percolation problem
- Many-particle dynamics
- Entropy driven processes (entropic binding)
- Statistical mechanical and percolation properties of DNA and
   protein sequence space
- Molecular evolution  - information theoretical aspects
- Informational aspects of neural processes

The participants are encouraged to propose the topics of their choice.

LOCATION:  (see map of Bled)
Lake Bled is a beautiful holiday resort with opportunity for short walks,
long hikes, swimming etc., to relax between the discussions.
The Workshop will take place in Villa Plemelj , bequeathed to
the Society of Mathematicians, Physicists and Astronomers by
the renowned Slovenian mathematician  Josip Plemelj .
The Villa can accommodate up to 16 people (sharing double bedrooms
with private bathrooms and kitchen corners). It has a small lecture room
for at most 20 people, and a garden. It is an ideal place for meditations
and discussion for a small group of enthusiasts.

COST:
We shall try to keep the cost low. We hope that we shall be able to cover
the local  expenses to a  limited number of participants. The "Conference fee"
will be about 300 Euros and it will cover accomodation, breakfast, coffee,
dinner and some social activities for 6 days. [It will be about 230 Euros for
those sharing a double room].

TRAVEL:
Bled is easily reached by road
(motorway from Austria - Karawankentunnel, or Italy-Trieste-Ljubljana),
by air (Ljubljana Airport is 30 km from Bled), by rail
(line Salzburg-Villach-Lesce/Bled-Ljubljana) and by bus from Ljubljana.
We shall do our best to pick up the participants at the Airport and at the
Bled Railway station. Detailed travel information will be give on the
web-page of the workshop, which will be accessible soon.

ORGANIZERS:
Branko Borstnik                                    Claude Garrod
National Institute of Chemistry            Department of Physics
Hajdrihova 19, P.O.B. 3430                 University of California at Davies
SI-1001 Ljubljana, Slovenia                e-mail: cgarrod@ucdavis.edu
Phone: +386 61 1760 313
Fax: +386 61 1259 244
e-mail: branko@hp10.ki.si

Janez Mavri                                            Ludwig G. Hofacker
National Institute of Chemistry             Theoretische Chemie
Ljubljana, Slovenia                                TU Muenchen
e-mail: janez@kihp2.cmm.ki.si             e-mail:hofacker@theochem.tu-muenchen.de

To register, please send mail to one of the organizers, preferably to B. Borstnik

Related Scientific Event
  EUCO-CC3  (Third European Conference on Computational Chemistry)
Budapest, Hungary, 4-8 September 2000