The Purdue Math Department hosted the 41st Midwest Partial Differential Equations Conference, held October 26-27. The conference consisted of eight one-hour talks and drew an audience of over seventy researchers and students. The speakers were S. Angenent, University of Wisconsin; E. Di Benedetto, Northwestern University; R. Jerrard, University of Illinois; R. Kohn, New York University; F. H. Lin, University of Chicago and New York University; J. Rauch, University of Michigan; Z. Shen, University of Kentucky; and K. Zumbrun, Indiana University.
The conference covered a wide range of subjects, including applications to the physical sciences such as the electrodynamics of lasers, the stability of cracks in elastic bodies, and blistering in thin films. Problems from geometry and dynamics were also addressed.
Professors Patricia Bauman, Nicola Garofalo, Daniel Phillips, and Antonio Sa Barreto co-organized the conference. Funding was provided by a National Science Foundation grant and by the department.
The next Midwest PDE Conference will be held at the University of Minnesota April 4-6, 1997.