Please join us on Saturday, October 22, 2005 at Brandeis University to meet your colleagues in the New England area working in statistical mechanics. The goal of these meetings is to offer an informal, friendly, and supportive environment where people from a variety of departments and institutions can exchange ideas and where old and new friends can meet.

There will be coffee and bagels from 9:00 am to 9:30 am and four sessions beginning at 9:30 am. Each session features a 25 minute invited talk, and the first three sessions also include a total of 27-30 three minute contributed talks. Viewgraphs can be used to show graphs and other visualizations of results, but the use of viewgraphs to present equations is discouraged. Laptops cannot be used for contributed talks. Contributors are encouraged to post their viewgraphs during the coffee breaks to facilitate discussions. Lunch will last for 90 minutes to give attendees a chance to mingle. Coffee will be available at all times (unlike last year). The meeting will conclude at approximately 3:30 pm.

The four invited speakers:

• Tony Dinsmore, UMass, Amherst, "Mapping Forces inside a 3D Droplet Pile" (work done with J. Zhou).
• Roderick Jensen, U Mass, Boston, "Exploring Functional Genomics Using DNA Microarrays and Bioinformatics."
• Udayan Mohanty, Boston College, "Conformation and ion atmosphere of RNA junctions."
• Xiao-Gang Wen, MIT, "Quantum liquids of polymers and origin of light and electrons."

Chairs: Stephen Arnason, UMass, Boston; Germano S. Iannacchione, WPI; David Weitz, Harvard; Fred Wu, Northeastern

We encourage you to register early because the number of contributed talks will be limited to 27-30.

Contributed Talks

1. Daniel Blair, Harvard University, "Stressed colloidal glasses."
2. Paul Maragakis, Harvard University, "Approximate committor isosurfaces and transition hypertubes with the string method: example for the alanine dipeptide in explicit water."
3. Eli Ben-Naim, LANL and Sidney Redner, Boston University, "Dynamics of social diversity."
4. Tibor Antal, Boston University, "Dynamics of friendship and hatred."
5. Germano Iannacchione, WPI, "A topological transition from random pores to voids."
6. Joshua Martin, Brandeis University, "Dynamics of confined DNA."
7. Stephen Arnason, UMass, Boston, "Electron glass behavior in amorphous Indium oxide."
8. Chengju Wang, Brown University, "Energy landscape filling ensemble studies on a Lennard-Jones system."
9. Fred Ellis, Wesleyan University, "Detailed balance and stimulated condensation in a superfluid film."
10. Silke Henkes, Brandeis University, "Jamming as a critical phenomenon: A field theory of zero-temperature grain packings."
11. Lauren O'Malley, RPI, "KPZ roughening in a two-species wavefront invasion model."
12. Evgeny Kozik, Umass, Amherst, "Radiation of sound by a distorted vortex line."
13. Oliver Ruebenacker, UConn Health Center, "Worm algorithm in microrheology."
14. Suliana Manley, MIT, "Frustrated phase separation in model cell membranes."
15. Ranjan Mukhopadhyay, Clark University, "Lipid domians in multicomponent membranes."
16. Joshua Kalb, Brandeis University, "1D inelastic gas statistics."
17. Yue Hu, Wellesley College, "Aging Effects in suspensions of silica particles in silicone oil."
18. Ercan Kamber, Brandeis University, "Dimers and the tilting transition."
19. Courtney Lannert, Wellesley College, "Collective modes of a 3d shell superfluid."
20. Gijsje Koenderink, Harvard University, "Mechanics of active actin-myosin networks."
21. Frederick Bernardin, MIT, "Bridging length scales in Monte Carlo simulations of oriented polymers."
22. Jan Fiala, Clark University, "Early stages of continuous ordering and spinodal decomposition."
23. Qiming Lu, RPI, "Threshold controlled cascading dynamics on random geometric graphs."
24. Allison Ferguson, Brandeis University, "Dynamical large-scale structures in granular flows."
25. Balazs Kozma, RPI, "Comparison of numerical and analytic predictions for an ecological two-species model."
26. Ashok Prasad, Brandeis University, "The mechanics of fluctuating rods."
27. Jennifer Houle, University of Maine, "A detailed study of the two-dimensional Ising spin glass using parallel tempering."
28. Hui Wang, Clark University, "Nonconstant nucleation rate in a system in apparent metastable equilibrium."
29. Junchao Xia, Clark University, "Two possible critical points in the generalized Burridge-Knopoff model of earthquakes?"
30. Yasheng Yang, Brandeis University, "Transition rates in a Lennard Jones binary mixture."
31. Jeremy Schmit, Brandeis University, "Covalent-like bonding between conjugated polymers."

The cost of the meeting is being subsidized by the New England Section of the American Physical Society, and hence there is no registration fee if you register by the deadline. However, it is necessary to register in advance so that sufficient food and refreshments will be available. The deadline for registration is Monday, October 17. If you miss the deadline, you are still welcome to attend the meeting, but the cost will be $10, and we cannot guarantee that food will be available. Information about joining the New England Section if you are not already a member will be available at the meeting.

Directions to Brandeis. The location of the meeting at Brandeis is different than for previous years. This year the meeting will be held in the Lemberg Lee Hall in the Lemberg Academic Center. As you enter Brandeis through the main entrance on South Street, drive toward the police booth and then take a left. At the next intersection take a left just after the Admissions building. You will quickly be in the T parking lot, behind the theater. Turn right and drive to the very far end of the lot and park. Walk up the roadway ahead of you and enter the Lemberg Academic Center on your right. See the campus map at , click on "interactive version". No parking permits are needed. Directions will be posted on the day of the meeting.

The Brandeis/Roberts commuter rail stop is very convenient. Trains depart to North Station at 3:44 pm, 6:11 pm, 6:34 pm, and 10:14 pm. Buses are also available.

Previous meetings:

1. The first meeting took place on Saturday, October 16, 1999 at Brandeis. We also honored the memory and work of Eugene Gross, a founding member of the physics faculty at Brandeis University and researcher in statistical mechanics.
2. Saturday, October 14, 2000.
3. Saturday, October 20, 2001.
4. Saturday, October 19, 2002.
5. Saturday, October 18, 2003.
6. Saturday, October 16, 2004.

Announcements

• The fall 2005 meeting of the New England Section of the APS/AAPT, will be held at the University of Vermont on October 14 and 15, 2005. The theme is Nano and Soft matter Physics. The theme of the meeting is Climate and Flight.
• 94th Statistical Mechanics Conference, Rutgers University, December 18-20, 2005.
• The 25th meeting of the New England Complex Fluids Workshop will be held at Harvard University on Friday, December 2, 2005. More info.
• Joel Lebowitz's human rights petition.

Organizing committee

• Bulbul Chakraborty, Brandeis University, bulbul@brandeis.edu
• Claudio Chamon, Boston University, chamon@buphy.bu.edu
• Harvey Gould, Clark University, hgould@clarku.edu
• Bill Klein, Boston University, klein@buphy.bu.edu

Advisory committee

• Greg Huber, Jon Machta, Susan McKay, Irwin Oppenheim, Sid Redner, David Weitz, Po-zen Wong

Please send questions, comments, and corrections to Harvey Gould, hgould@clarku.edu.