The 8th International Liblice Conference on the ‘Statistical Mechanics of Liquids’ was held in the Myslivna Hotel, Brno, Czech Republic, from 13–18 June 2010. The Liblice series of conferences are devoted to basic research in statistical mechanics and to the application of molecular-based theories of liquids. The meetings, which take their name from the site where the first conference was held in 1983, have become international events. The aim is to provide an effective forum for contacts and for the exchange of ideas, with an emphasis on discussion rather than on formal presentations, highlighting advances and challenges in both theoretical and applied aspects of the discipline. Almost 130 participants from 20 different countries (many of whom are researchers at the start of their careers) attended the conference at this hunting lodge in the Pisárky forest overlooking the city of Brno.
In addition to the traditional topics (fundamentals of liquid-state theories and methodologies of molecular simulation), the programme of the 8th Liblice Conference included recent specific developments in the treatment of: inhomogeneous systems, confined systems, interfacial properties, liquid crystals and nanosystems; aqueous systems, hydrophobic interactions and electrolytes; dipolar and ionic fluids, and fluids in electric fields; polymers, colloids and polydisperse systems; proteins, biomolecules and self-organising systems and slow dynamics and rare events.
There were 13 fascinating talks by the keynote speakers (Giovanni Ciccotti, Angel Garcia, Lev Gelb, Sharon Glotzer, Jean-Pierre Hansen, Doug Henderson, Alenka Luzar, Peter Monson, Peter Rossky, Francesco Sciortino, M. Scott Shell, Gregory Voth and Nigel Wilding), 35 oral presentations and over 80 poster contributions. These ranged from presentations by young scientists (such as the expositions by Eva Noya on ‘Quantum effects in liquid water and ice’, Carlos Avendaño on ‘Coarse-graining of complex fluids’, and Tom Lafitte on ‘Modelling the anomalies in the thermodynamic properties of water’) to Doug Henderson's stately account on ‘Understanding liquids’, and Jean-Pierre Hansen's excellent Molecular Physics Lecture entitled ‘Wetting and drying scenarios of ionic solutions’.
The Editors of Molecular Physics and the publisher (Taylor and Francis Ltd) were sponsors of the Conference, as they had been for the 7th Liblice Meeting in 2006. Contributions from the participants are being published as a special issue of the Journal following review and editing to the usual high standard. It will be apparent from the work collected here that there is a good balance of review material, which introduces and summarises the status of the various topics, and novel topical work.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
George Jackson
Special Issue Editor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom ([email protected]).Ivo Nezbeda
Conference Chairman, Faculty of Science, J.E. Purkinje University, Ceske mladeze 8, 400 96 Usti n. L., Czech Republic, and E. Hala Laboratory of Thermodynamics, Academy of Sciences, Rozvojova 135, 165 02 Prague 6 - Suchdol, Czech Republic ([email protected]).Notes
Special Issue Editor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom ([email protected]).
Conference Chairman, Faculty of Science, J.E. Purkinje University, Ceske mladeze 8, 400 96 Usti n. L., Czech Republic, and E. Hala Laboratory of Thermodynamics, Academy of Sciences, Rozvojova 135, 165 02 Prague 6 - Suchdol, Czech Republic ([email protected]).