Workshop

The field of random media has been the object of intensive mathematical research over the last thirty years. It covers a variety of models, mainly from condensed matter physics, physical chemistry, and geology, where one is interested in materials which have defects or inhomogeneities. These features are taken into account by letting the medium be random. It has been found that this randomness can cause very unexpected effects in the large scale behavior of these models; on occasion these run contrary to the prevailing intuition.  A feature of this area, which it has in common with other areas of statistical physics, is that what was initially thought to be just a simple toy model has turned out to be a major mathematical challenge.         Accommodation:   A block of rooms has been reserved at the Rose Garden Inn. Reservations may be made by calling 1-800-992-9005 OR directly on their website. Click on Corporate at the bottom of the screen and when prompted enter code MATH (this code is not case sensitive). By using this code a new calendar will appear and will show MSRI rate on all room types available. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Hotel Durant. Please mention MSRI and the workshop name when making reservations via phone, fax or e-mail. If you are making your reservations on line, please go to Hotel Durant website, choose your dates of stay and enter the "123MSRI" promo code in the box. The cut-off date for reservations is  Midnight on the day of Thursday, March 29, 2012. The rate is $110 per night plus tax.     A block of rooms has been reserved at the Hotel Shattuck Plaza.  Reservations may be made by calling 1-866-466-9199 and mentioning MSRI and the workshop name. For booking online: Go to www.hotelshattuckplaza.com, enter the dates, click "Book Now", click on "Preferred/Corporate Rate Accounts" and enter the code: rwrm12.  The rate is $119 plus tax, based on availability.  There is no cut-off date for reservations.