Prigogine Award 2018

The Prigogine Gold Medal 2018 Award Ceremony will take place at the University of Siena, Italy on Tuesday 4th September 2018, on the occasion of the 10th International Conference on Sustainable Development and Planning.

The Prigogine Medal was established in 2004 by the University of Siena and the Wessex Institute of Technology to honour the memory of Professor Ilya Prigogine, Nobel Prize Winner for Chemistry.

STUART KAUFFMAN

Stuart Kauffman

Professor Stuart Kauffman is an American medical doctor, theoretical biologist, and complex systems researcher who studies the origin of life on Earth. He was a professor at the Universities of Chicago, Pennsylvania and Calgary. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania and affiliate faculty at the Institute for Systems Biology. He has a number of awards including a MacArthur Fellowship and a Wiener Medal.

He is best known for arguing that the complexity of biological systems and organisms might result as much from self-organisation and far-from-equilibrium dynamics as from Darwinian natural selection as discussed in his book Origins of Order (1993). In 1967 and 1969 Kauffman used random boolean networks to investigate generic selforganising properties of gene regulatory networks. Using these models, he proposed that cell types are dynamical attractors in gene regulatory networks and that cell differentiation can be understood as transitions between attractors. Recent evidence suggests that cell types in humans and other organisms are attractors.

In 1971 he suggested that a zygote may not be able to access all the cell type attractors in its gene regulatory network during development and that some of the developmentally inaccessible cell types might be cancer cell types. This suggested the possibility of “cancer differentiation therapy”. He also proposed the self-organised emergence of collectively autocatalytic sets of polymers, specifically peptides, for the origin of molecular reproduction, which have found experimental support.

ILYA PRIGOGINE

Ilya Prigogine was born in Moscow in 1917, and obtained his undergraduate and graduate education in chemistry at the Free University in Brussels. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to non-equilibrium thermodynamics, particularly the theory of dissipative structures. The main theme of his scientific work was the role of time in the physical sciences and biology. He contributed significantly to the understanding of irreversible processes, particularly in systems far from equilibrium. The results of his work have had profound consequences for understanding biological and ecological systems.

Prigogine’s ideas established the basis for ecological systems research. The Prigogine Medal to honour his memory is awarded annually to a leading scientist in the field of ecological systems. All recipients have been deeply influenced by the work of Prigogine.

Previous Prigogine Laureates were:

2004 Sven Jorgensen, Denmark
2005 Enzo Tiezzi, Italy
2006 Bernard Patten, USA
2007 Robert Ulanowicz, USA
2008 Ioannis Antoniou, Greece
2009 Emilio del Giudice, Italy
2010 Felix Müller, Germany
2011 Larissa Brizhik, Ukraine
2012 Gerald Pollack, USA
2011 Larissa Brizhik, Ukraine
2013 Vladimir Voeikov, Russia
2014 Mae-wan Ho, UK
2015 Bai-Lian Larry Li, USA
2016 Brian Fath, USA
2017 João Carlos Marques, Portugal

The 2018 Medal will be awarded to Professor Stuart Kauffman, Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania and affiliate faculty at the Institute for Systems Biology.

SPECIAL PRIGOGINE LECTURE

on

“A World Beyond Physics:
The Emergence and Evolution of Life”
to be delivered by Professor Stuart Kauffman at the University of Siena, Italy.

For further information about the Prigogine Awards, please contact Professor Carlos Brebbia at the Wessex Institute of Technology.

Professor Carlos Brebbia
Wessex Institute of Technology
Ashurst Lodge, Ashurst
Southampton
SO40 7AA, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 238 029 3223
Fax: +44 (0) 238 029 2853
Email: carlos@wessex.ac.uk

See the following Web pages for details of recent Prigogine Awards:

• http://www.wessex.ac.uk/conferences/2014/sustainable-city-2014
• http://wessexinstitute.co.uk/conferences/2015/ecosud-2015
• http://www.wessex.ac.uk/conferences/2016/sustainable-city-2016
• http://www.wessex.ac.uk/conferences/2017/sustainable-city-2017

Urban Agriculture 2018

1st International Conference on Urban Agriculture and City Sustainability

9 - 11 October, 2018

New Forest, UK

Introduction

The aim of the Conference is to review and discuss ways in which urban agriculture can contribute to achieving sustainable cities.

As urban populations continue to increase it is essential to consider ways of reducing their impact in terms of use of natural resources, waste production and climate change.

The increasing number of people in cities requires new strategies to supply the necessary food with limited provision of land and decreasing resources. This will become more challenging unless innovative solutions for growing and distributing food in urban environments are considered.

The scale of modern food production has created and exacerbated many vulnerabilities and the feeding of cities is now infinitely more complex. As such the food system cannot be considered secure, ethical or sustainable.

In the last few years, there has been a rapid expansion in initiatives and projects exploring innovative methods and processes for sustainable food production. The majority of these projects are focused on providing alternative models that shift the power back from the global food system to communities and farmers improving social cohesion, health and wellbeing. It is therefore not surprising that more people are looking towards urban farming initiatives as a potential solution.

These initiatives have demonstrated that urban agriculture has the potential to transform our living environment towards ecologically sustainable and healthy cities. Urban agriculture can also contribute to energy, natural resources, land and water savings, ecological diversity and urban management cost reductions.

The impact urban agriculture can have on the shape and form of our cities has never been fully addressed. How cities embed these new approaches and initiatives, as part of new urban developments and a city regeneration strategy is critical.

The Urban Agriculture conference will address these challenges and search for new solutions.

Conference Topics

The following list covers some of the topics to be presented at Urban Agriculture.  Papers on other subjects related to the objectives of the conference are also welcome.

Development and Planning

• Urban metabolism
• History of urban agriculture
• Integrated urbanism
• Sustainable land use
• Urban and peri-urban enterprises
• Green infrastructures and sustainable urbanism
• Continuous productive urban landscaping
• City food chains
• Food sovereignty
• Urban distribution and processing systems
• Market gardens
• Sustainable urban drainage
• Water resources and irrigation systems
• Sustainable food systems
• Organic farming
• Food security

Urban Farms 

• Patchwork farms
• Pop-up farms
• Roof top farms
• Green roofs
• Vertical greening and farms
• Hydroponics, aquaponics and aeroponics
• Hydrogardens
• Composting in cities
• Allotment systems
• Permaculture and agricultural forestry
• Urban animal farms and bee-keeping
• Greenhouses
• Food networks

Socio-Economic Aspects 

• Community supported agriculture
• Community cohesion and job creation
• Community gardens
• Communities as co-producers
• School and young urban farmers
• Education and training

Innovation and Benefits 

• Closed loops systems
• Transport and distribution
• Waste food recovery and recycling
• Renewable energy resources
• Healthy cities
• Care farming
• Ecological water systems
• Biofuel production in cities
• Quality of streets and urban environment
• Reduction of Urban Heat Island
• Farm to fork
• Eco-cities and eco-villaging
• Show cities
• Air pollution reductions
• Organic farming

                                                   Find out more on the conference webpage.

Eco-Architecture 2018

7th International Conference on Harmonisation between Architecture and Nature

2 - 4 October, 2018

New Forest, UK

Introduction

The objective of this Conference is to review the challenges and new opportunities of contemporary architecture. These are a result of advances in design and new building technologies, as well as the development of new materials. 

Many of the changes are motivated by a drive towards eco-architecture, trying to harmonise architectural products with nature. Another important issue is the adaptation of the architectural design to the natural environment, learning from nature and traditional construction techniques.

Contemporary architecture is at the threshold of a new stage of evolution, deeply influenced by the advances in information and computer systems and the development of new materials and products, as well as construction processes that will drastically change the industry.

Emphasis is placed on the minimum use of energy at each stage of the building process, the design by passive systems, life cycle assessment, resources optimisation and rehabilitation.

Never before in history have architects and engineers had such a range of new processes and products open to them. In spite of that, the construction industry lags behind all others in taking advantage of a wide variety of new technologies. This is understandable, due to the inherent complexity and uniqueness of each architectural project. Advances in computer and information systems, including robotics, offers the possibility of developing new architectural forms, construction products and building technologies which are just now starting to emerge.

Changes have also taken place in the way modern society works and lives, due to the impact of modern technologies. Patterns of work have been disrupted and changed, affecting transportation and the home environment. The demand is for a new type of habitat that can respond to the changes and the consequent requirements in terms of urban environment.

The conference will deal with topics such as building technologies, design by passive systems, design with nature, cultural sensitivity, life cycle assessment, resources and rehabilitation and many others including case studies from many different places around the world. The list of topics gives an idea of the scope of the meeting, papers on other topics relating to the conference objectives, are welcome.

All conference papers are archived online in the WIT eLibrary (www.witpress.com/elibrary) where they are easily and permanently available in Open Access format to the international community.

Architecture is very multi-disciplinary, attracting many other professions. In this regard the conference participants are expected to be engineers, planners, computer experts, physical scientists, sociologists and economists, as well as architects, providing all of them an opportunity to share information and ideas with their colleagues from different regions of the world.

The seventh International Conference follows the six successful meetings which started in the New Forest, home of the Wessex Institute of Technology, in 2006; and followed in the Algarve (2008); A Coruna (2010), the island of Kos (2012), Siena (2014) and Alicante (2016).

Conference Topics

The following list covers some of the topics to be presented at Eco-Architecture 2018. Papers on other topics related to the objectives of the conference are also welcome.

• Energy efficiency
• New building technologies
• Computer aided design
• Robotics and artificial intelligence
• City agriculture
• Urban landscaping and green spaces
• Transportation and habitat
• Community participation
• Design and construction integration
• Flexible housing
• Floating buildings
• Smart houses
• New materials and products
• Contemporary habitat typologies
• Houses as a working environment
• Management and maintenance
• Design with nature
• Tall buildings and urban design
• Building technologies
• Tall buildings and environment
• Ecological impacts of materials
• Bioclimatic design
• Water quality
• Green facades
• Ecological and cultural sensitivity
• Design by passive systems
• Adapted reuse
• Life cycle assessment and durability
• Transformative design
• Sustainability indices in architecture
• Recycle, reuse, reduce and recovery
• Building flexibility
• Architectural visualisation
• New techniques: building information modelling
• Education and training
• Case studies

                                                     Find out more on the conference webpage.

Urban Transport 2018

24th  International Conference on Urban Transport and the Environment

19 - 21 September, 2018

Seville, Spain

Introduction

The International Conference on Urban Transport and the Environment has been successfully reconvened for nearly 25 years, always attracting a wide international spread of delegates. It is well-established as the premier event of its type. 

The continuing requirement for better urban transport systems and the need for a healthier environment has added to the increasing success of this annual meeting which attracts international delegates from many different countries. Innovative systems, new approaches and original ideas need to be thoroughly tested and critically evaluated before they can be implemented in practice, which highlights the importance of the meeting. Moreover, there is a growing need for integration with telecommunications systems and IT applications in order to improve safety, security and efficiency. The Meeting also addresses the need to solve important pollution problems associated with urban transport in order to achieve a healthier environment.

The variety of topics covered by the conference reflects the complex interaction of the urban transport systems with their environment and the need to establish integrated strategies. The aim is to arrive at optimal socio-economic solutions while reducing the negative environmental impacts of current transportation systems.

The conference started in Southampton in 1995; continuing in Barcelona (1996); Acquasparta, Italy (1997); Lisbon (1998); Rhodes (1999); Cambridge, UK (2000); Lemnos, Greece (2001); Seville (2002); Crete (2003); Dresden (2004); Algarve (2005); WIT Campus in the New Forest (2006); Coimbra (2007); Malta (2008); Bologna (2009); Limassol (2010); Pisa (2011), A Coruña (2012), Kos (2013), Algarve (2014), Valencia (2015) , Crete (2016) and Rome (2017).

All papers are included in the WIT Transactions and Journals and archived in the Wessex Institute’s eLibrary at www.witpress.com/elibrary, where they are permanently freely available to the international community.

Conference Topics

The following list covers some of the topics to be presented at Urban Transport 2018. Papers on other subjects related to the objectives of the conference are also welcome.

• Urban transport planning and management
• Urban strategies
• Public transport systems
• Environmental impact
• Economic and social impact
• Safety and security
• Travel behaviour studies
• Traffic control
• Transportation modelling and simulation
• Infrastructure development
• Intelligent and advanced transport systems
• Transportation integration
• City logistics
• Inter-modal transport systems
• Mass transport strategies
• Freight transport
• Railway systems
• Public policies and governance
• Port and city
• Mobility and public space
• Life cycle management
• Innovative and electric transportation
• Eco-mobility transport systems
• Integrated network systems
• Traditional and alternative fuels and energy
• Smart city transport
• Driverless cars
• Asset management

                                                        Find out more on the conference webpage.

Waste Management 2018

9th International Conference on Waste Management and the Environment

17 - 19 September, 2018

Seville, Spain

Introduction

The conference provides a forum for the exchange of scientific information and works on the current situation of waste management amongst professionals, researchers, government departments and local authorities.

Waste Management is one of the key problems of modern society due to the ever-expanding volume and complexity of discarded domestic and industrial waste.

Society is increasingly aware of the need to establish better practices and safer solutions for waste disposal. This requires further investigation into disposal methods and recycling as well as new technologies to monitor landfills, industrial mining wastes and chemical and nuclear repositories.

This creates a need for more research on current disposal methods such as landfills, incineration, chemical and effluent treatment, as well as recycling, clean technologies, waste monitoring, public and corporate awareness and general education.

Conference Topics

The following list covers some of the topics to be presented at Waste Management 2018. Papers on other subjects related to the objectives of the conference are also welcome.

• Environmental impact
• Reduce, reuse, recycle and recovery (4Rs)
• Secondary raw materials (SRM)
• Refuse derived fuel (RDF)
• The circular economy
• Energy from waste
• Industrial waste management
• Hazardous waste
• Agricultural waste
• Wastewater
• eWaste
• Landfill optimization and mining
• Remote sensing
• Thermal treatment
• Environmental remediation
• Pre-treatment of municipal waste
• Behavioural issues
• Health care waste
• Decommissioning
• Radioactive waste management

                                                  Find out more on the conference webpage.

BEM/MRM 41

41st International Conference on Boundary Elements and other Mesh Reduction Methods

11 - 13 September 2018

New Forest, UK

Introduction

The annual conference on Boundary Elements and other Mesh Reduction Methods (BEM/MRM) which started in 1978 is now in its 41st version, to take place in the New Forest, near Southampton (UK).

The meetings since 1978 have produced a collection of edited volumes in which the major developments in the field have been represented. This valuable series has been offered in digital form since 1993, with all papers available Open Access in the Wessex Institute’s eLibrary website (www.witpress.com/elibrary), where they can be easily accessed and downloaded for free.

Since starting in 1978 the Conference has attracted high quality papers that report further advances in techniques that reduce or eliminate the type of meshes associated with finite elements or finite differences, for instance.

Theoretical advances and new foundations have been requested at the Conference for more than 40 years, helping to expand the range of applications as well as the type of materials in response to industrial and professional requirements. This ability to evolve is reflected in the history of the Conference which has ensured the success of the meetings as well as the establishment of a community of stakeholders.

As design, analysis and manufacture become more integrated the chances are that the users will be less aware of the capabilities of the analytical techniques that are at the core of the process. This reinforces the need to retain expertise in certain specialised areas of numerical methods, such as BEM/MRM, to ensure that all new tools perform satisfactorily in the integrated process.

The maturity of BEM since 1978 has resulted in a substantial number of industrial applications which demonstrate the accuracy, robustness and easy use of the technique. Their range still needs to be widened, taking into account the potentialities of the Mesh Reduction techniques in general.

This well-established conference acts as a forum to discuss new ideas and critically compare results before the solution and tools are released to end users.

The meeting welcomes all stakeholders interested in the methods and particularly the participation of young researchers. Their new contributions have been the principal reason why the conference has continued to evolve.

Conference Topics

The following list covers some of the topics that can be presented at BEM/MRM 41.  Papers on other subjects related to the objectives of the conference are also welcome.

• Advanced formulations
• Hybrid foundations
• Advanced meshless and mesh reduction methods
• Structural mechanics applications
• Solid mechanics
• Heat and mass transfer
• Electrical engineering and electromagnetics
• Computational methods
• Fluid flow modelling
• Damage mechanics and fracture
• Dynamics and vibrations
• Engineering applications
• Interfacing with other methods
• Coupling with design and manufacturing
• Solution of large systems of equations

                                                 Find out more on the conference webpage.

Energy Quest 2018

3rd International Conference on Energy Production and Management: The Quest for Sustainable Energy

10 - 12 September, 2018

New Forest, UK

Introduction

The 3rd International Conference on Energy Production and Management: The Quest for Sustainable Energy, follows the very successful meetings held in Ekaterinburg (2014) and Ancona (2016). The aim of the meeting is to discuss the future of energy production and management in a changing world. 

The objective is to compare conventional energy sources, particularly hydrocarbons, with a number of other ways of producing energy, emphasising new technological developments, based on renewable resources such as solar, hydro, wind and geothermal.

A key issue is the conversion of new sustainable sources of energy into useful forms (electricity, heat, fuel) while finding efficient ways of storage and distribution. In many cases, the challenges lie as much with the production of such renewable energy at an acceptable cost, including damage to the environment, as with integration of those resources into the existing infrastructure.

The changes required to progress from an economy based mainly on hydrocarbons to one taking advantage of sustainable energy resources are massive and require considerable scientific research as well as the development of advanced engineering systems. Such progress demands close collaboration between different disciplines in order to arrive at optimum solutions.

The Conference also discusses the energy use of industrial processes, including the embedded energy contents of materials, such as those in the built environment. Energy production, distribution and usage, result in environmental risks which need to be better understood. They are part of the energy economics and relate to human environmental health as well as ecosystems behaviour.

An important objective of the conference is to discuss ways in which more efficient use can be made of conventional as well as new energy sources. This relates to savings in energy consumption, reduction of energy losses, as well as the implementation of smart devices and the design of intelligent distribution networks.

All published papers from previous meetings are permanently archived in the Wessex Institute eLibrary (www.witpress.com/elibrary) where they are freely available to the international community.

Conference Topics

The following list covers some of the topics to be presented at Energy Quest 2018. Papers on other subjects related to the objectives of the conference are also welcome.

• Energy policies
• Energy management and economics
• Energy generation
• Energy efficiency
• Energy and the city
• Energy security
• Smart networks
• Energy networks
• Processing of oil and gas
• Emissions
• Renewable energies
• Biomass and biofuels
• Waste to energy
• Energy and the built environment
• Energy storage
• Automization of energy systems
• Energy conversion
• Hybrid energy systems
• Energy recovery
• Emergent applications
• Nuclear energy
• Environmental impact
• Safety management
• Energy and climate change

                                                            Find out more on the conference webpage.