Festival de Théorie Home

Scope of the meeting

The Festival de Théorie is an initiative that aims at fostering interdisciplinary research activity in the field of magnetised plasmas – including controlled fusion, space and astrophysics, with connections to fluid mechanics and geophysics, among others. These meetings are organized in July every odd year in Aix-en-Provence (France) since 2001. They usually gather 25 to 35 international experts.

The objective is three fold:

1. Presenting the most recent results in the field and promoting new ideas.
2. Triggering and/or pursuing interdisciplinary collaboration on common research projects.In this regard, it is expected that the participants cover a broad spectrum of expertise.
3. Providing educational training for PhD and post-doc students.

In 2017, the main topic of the ninth meeting of the Festival de Théorie is "Avalanching and Self-Organization in Plasmas: 30 Years of BTW**.

It will last 4 weeks and will be organised in two parts:

• June 26th - July 7th: primary workshop, similar to the previous festivals.
• July 10th - July 20th: second part of the festival = Festival Projects. There, 1 or 2 Festival Fellows will work on a Research Project under the supervision of a Research Faculty member.

Organisation of the Festival Workshop (June 26th - July 7th, 2017)

Each half-day of the meeting starts with a presentation given by a participant. Morning presentations are dedicated to tutorial lectures. Blackboard presentations and discussions will be promoted. Most of the time is shared between individual work and discussions in working groups.

Lectures are given by some of the senior participants to the young scientists attending the meeting. These lectures aim at introducing, in a pedagogical way, the most advanced concepts and results presented during the talks.

Participants are invited by the Scientific Committee. They will be notified in the coming months. Your contribution and suggestion to the scientific organisation is welcomed. This invitation covers the 2 weeks of the venue. We strongly encourage a participation of 2 weeks. The number of participants is limited to about 35 senior scientists. We wish to keep the Festival de Théorie open to less experienced theoreticians, Post-docs and PhD students.

Note that if you have never attended the Festival, you should be given a wiki username and password.

Organisation of the Festival Projects (July 10th - July 20th, 2017)

About 10 fellowships are available for graduate students and post-doctorates. The program is competitive: Fellows are selected based on the applicant's previous academic and scientific achievements and promise as future scientist. Applications from prospective Fellows trained in the field outside fusion plasma physics are encouraged (e.g. fluid dynamics, astrophysics, statistical physics and applied mathematics).

Application:

Prospective Fellows should send Guilhem Dif-Pradalier (guilhem.dif-pradalier@cea.fr):

• their CV, a description of their research work and 1-2 sample publications, if available
• the contact information for 1 referee, presumably their research supervisor
• a brief statement of what they seek to accomplish at the Festival, how they would contribute to, and profit from, such an interdisciplinary activity. Important consideration is given to matching each Fellow with an appropriate advisor.

Deadlines:

• Applications should be sent by March 1st, 2017
• Decisions will be announced by April 3rd, 2017

Festival Flyer:

Please feel free to print and distribute the following festival flyer.