Mini-Symposium: Entropy Methods in Thermodynamics and Partial Differential Equations

Wednesday 28 November 2007

 

Program

Each talk will include 5 to 10 minutes of question and discussion time, at the speaker's discretion.

8:45 - 9:15	Registration
9:15 - 10:10	Keynote: Tommaso Ruggeri (Bologna) The Entropy Principle: from continuum mechanics to hyperbolic systems of balance laws
10:10 - 10:40	John Dartnall (UTS) Thermodynamics from a few dynamic particles raises questions as to how temperature and entropy should be perceived and defined
10:40 - 11:00	Morning Tea
11:00 - 12:00	Keynote: Phil Attard (Sydney) The second entropy: a general theory for non-equilibrium thermodynamics and statistical mechanics
12:00 - 12:30	Contributed talk
12:30 - 1:45	Lunch
1:45 - 2:40	Keynote: Gary Morriss (UNSW)
2:40 - 3:10	Yihong Du (UNE) Convergence and sharp thresholds for propagation in nonlinear diffusion problems
3:10 - 3:40	Philip Broadbridge (AMSI) Entropy description of evolution PDEs
3:40 - 4:00	Afternoon tea

Keynote speakers

TOMMASO RUGGERI is Professor of Rational Mechanics at the University of Bologna. He is also a member of the Department of Mathematics and the Research Centre of Applied Mathematics (CIRAM) at the University.

His main scientific areas of interest are non-linear wave propagation and hyperbolic systems, and non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Among many publications, he has co-authored with Ingo Müller two Springer Tracts in Natural Philosophy on the subject of Thermodynamics.

PHIL ATTARD is a Professorial Fellow of the Australian Research Council. He is currently at the School of Chemistry, University of Sydney, Australia. He is a theoretician with a background in physics, chemistry, and applied mathematics. His research is in the areas of surface force measurement and theory, continuum mechanics, and liquid state theory, with an emphasis on general techniques, algorithms and fundamental theory.

He is most well known for his discovery of nanobubbles, which has shifted the paradigm for the understanding of the nature of the water-solid interface. He has published over a hundred papers and a comprehensive text-book: ''Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics: Equilibrium by Entropy Maximisation'' (Academic Press, London, 2002). His most recent research has focused on developing a general theory for non-equilibrium thermodynamics and statistical mechanics.

Other bios will be posted as they are received.

Organising committee

Prof. Philip Broadbridge, AMSI
Prof. Tony Guttmann, MASCOS

More information

Email Graham Keen, AMSI at

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