The Second British-French Workshop on Mathematical Techniques for Wave Problems

Both the French and British academic communities have a long and successful history of research in applied mathematics and in particular, in phenomenological and theoretical aspects of wave mechanics. In the last forty or so years however the two countries' interests have diverged somewhat, with the French scientists tending to the more pure end of this field whilst the British applied mathematicians have developed a variety of new application areas. As a consequence, the working relationship between the two groups is not as strong as it should be. In recent years the French scientists, aware that they need to interact more with engineers and scientists outside the mathematics domain, have made strenuous efforts to bridge this gap via closer ties with their British counterparts. We in the UK have much to gain from this interaction.One development to stimulate closer French-British ties was the organization of a successful two day meeting held at the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Techniques Avancees (ENSTA), Paris, in June 2004, entitled 'French-British meeting on Mathematical Techniques in Diffraction Theory'. One of the key recommendations after this meeting was to hold a follow-on meeting in the UK two years after the first one. We now propose to hold this meeting in Manchester in June 2006. The focus of the meeting will be on 'mathematical techniques for wave problems', and will seek to discuss activity ranging from functional analysis, through perturbation methods and transform techniques, to hybrid and advanced numerical approaches, with special emphasis on application areas. Talks will be organized into three main subject areas: Multiple Scattering and Homogenization, Problems in Ducts and Waveguides, and Methods for Wave Propagation. The aim of the meeting will be to bring together French and British workers in order to exchange ideas and encourage collaboration. A number of interactions were initiated from the first meeting in 2004 and a second workshop will strengthen this collaboration and encourage further ties. In particular time will be set aside to discuss the establishment of formal links for postgraduate students and young researchers.