Dr. Janak R. Wedagedera
Senior Lecturer in Mathematics
University of Ruhuna
Dr. Rudolf A. Römer
Lecturer in Computational Physics
University of Warwick
Monday, 07 February 2005
CIMPA
Prof. Michel Jambu
Le Dubellay, 4 avenue Joachim - Bât. B
06100 Nice, FRANCE
Ruhuna International School on
Computational and Mathematical Physics (RISCMAP)
20 December - 31 December 2004
Coordinators:
Rudolf A. Roemer, Department of Physics, University of Warwick
Janak Wedagedera, Department of Mathematics, University of Ruhuna
Scientific Report
The Ruhuna International School on Computational and Mathematical Physics started on December
20th, 2005 in Matara on Sri Lanka. We had sixteen participants from developing countries outside
of Sri Lanka (India 5, Pakistan 4, Iran 2, Philippines 2, Bangladesh 1, Nepal 1, Nigeria 1), fifteen
participants from Sri Lanka (6 of which were from Ruhuna), six lecturers from developing countries
(SL 4, India 1, Iran 1) and five lecturers from developed countries (France 2, Germany 1, UK 1,
Switzerland/SL 1). 6 participants had been invited and were expected but did not come for unknown
reasons. All together, we were thus 42 persons participating in RISCMAP. The scientific subject
present at the conference ranged from Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science to IT security
and commercials companies.
The local organizing committee had done a wonderful job of preparing the conference, e.g.,
selecting suitable hotels for the participants, some of them beautifully located next to the beaches in
Matara. The University of Ruhuna also provided support of a very high-technical standard. The
prepared lecture rooms were all of sufficient size and the technical facilities included computer
projectors, overhead projectors and large blackboards. The local organizing committee had assured
that sufficient access to computing facilities was provided by opening up three computer
laboratories for all participants and giving everyone computer and email accounts.
On Monday, December 20th, the winter school started with a hearty welcome by the vice chancellor
of Ruhuna University, Prof. Ranjit Seneratna, as well as the Dean of the faculty of science, Prof S.P.
Samarakoon. After our first communal tea, Prof. Michael Schreiber from the University of Chemnitz
in Germany started the first technical session. In his lectures he described the physics of quasicrystals and their many applications both in mathematics, physics and in real life. After the lunch in
The University of Warwick
Department of Physics
Coventry CV4 7AL
United Kingdom
Theoretical Physics Group:
www.phys.warwick.ac.uk/theory/
Centre for Scientific Computing:
www.csc.warwick.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (2476) 574328 / 527327
Fax: +44 (7876) 858246
Email: [email protected]
URL: www.warwick.ac.uk/go/rudoroemer
the university guest house, Prof. Ramesh Pai from the University of Goa in India gave his first
presentation on the numerical treatment of low dimensional quantum main body systems by means
of the density matrix renormalization group. This was followed by a talk of Prof. Nanayakkara from
the Institute for Fundamental Studies (IFS) in Kandy on quantum chaos and random matrix theory.
The first day of the winter school was closed by a session from Mr. Mueller on I. T. security. Mr.
Mueller is a long term expert on the subject with extensive experience in the IT industry. The
participants then returned to their hotels for their evening dinner.
The second day continued with lectures by Schreiber, Pai, Nanayakkara in the morning and Mueller
in the afternoon. In addition, Prof. Schreiber had his first practical session for two lecture hours in
the afternoon. We closed the day by the first poster session in which the participants had at chance
to expose their work to their colleagues and to all lecturers. Six participants had put up posters and
these were being discussed lively. On the third day, Profs. Schreiber and Pai gave their last lectures
in the morning. The afternoon had been kept free for local sightseeing or simply a visit the beach.
However since we had hired a bus for the total duration of the winter school to bring the conference
participants to and from the hotels and also to and from the lunch, we also offered a free trip to the
Dikwella blow hole and nearby temples. About twenty participants choose to go on this trip.
The second half of the first week had a slightly different focus. Prof. Fouladvand from Zanjan
University in Iran spoke about the physics and mathematics of traffic flow problems and gave
various real life examples such as traffic jams and traffic control. Profs. Caromel and Attali are
experts on modern grid computing technologies. While Prof. Caromel's lectures centered on the
implementations of all these technologies on modern computer architectures and the internet, Prof.
Attali was focusing on their security aspects. In the afternoons, we continued with practical sessions
by Profs. Pai, Attali and Caromel. Particularly the last two lecturers had put much work into
preparing these sessions and we would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank them for their
efforts. On December 23 we also had our first conference dinner with Kandy'an dancers and music
as well as typical Sri Lankan dishes and dessert. The last session on December, 24th 2004 was again
a poster session.
After the first week many participants remarked how much they liked the winter school, the
university campus and this lovely southern part of Sri Lanka. Some were particularly pleased with
the wide variety of topics chosen for the winter school and all where unanimously impressed by the
usefulness of the practical sections.
In the late afternoon of December 25th, most conference participants left Matara for our 2-day
excursion to Kandy and the Hill country. We had chartered a bus that took us along the coastal road
towards Colombo and onwards to Kandy which we reached late at night. In the morning of
December 26 we went to the elephant orphanage in Pinnawella.
Upon returning from the elephant orphanage we've heard rumors that the high waves had entered
Matara town. Phone calls to Matara did no longer go through neither to land lines nor to mobile
connections. No further information was available to us and therefore we returned as planned to the
IFS in Kandy, had lunch there and listen to Prof. Nanayakkara give his second talk. And the end of
this talk at about 15:00 o'clock, news coverage from Sri Lankan coastal areas had resumed and
informed us that a tsunami had struck at about 09:30 o'clock that morning and several hundred
people were feared dead in Matara alone.
It quickly became clear that this would prevent our return to Matara on the next day as previously
planned since the regular road would have taken us into exactly those severely affected coastal areas
including Mount Lavinia, Kalutara, Galle, etc. Furthermore, we knew that Profs. Attali and Caromel
together with their two sons, Tom five years old, and Ugo eight years old, had been traveling south
and east along the coastal road towards Yala National Park at the South Coast of Sri Lanka. On the
evening of December 26, I received a phone call from Janak Wedagedera urging us to remain in
Kandy since return to our hotels was impossible: at least two of the hotels had been severely
2/6
damaged and we feared that all the luggage of the participants and speakers had been lost in the
tsunami.
On the morning of December 27th it was still impossible to reach Matara by phone (phone calls out
of Matara were then also impossible since all power was gone for 2 days as we learned later). In
order to find out what had happened to the luggage and to see if we could salvage some of the
remains (including tickets and in some cases passports) we decided to send a rescue party down to
Matara. Prof. Schreiber and my brother-in-law, Mr. Mohan Wijesekara, who lives in Kandy,
volunteered to go on the trip. We sent the excursion bus with one local organizer (Mr. Samantha)
and also an especially hired 4-wheel van with Prof. Schreiber, another local organizer (Mr.
Lasantha) and my brother-in-law. They left at noon.
In the meantime it became clear from news reports that the devastation at the coast was of a larger
scale than we had initially assumed. Therefore, we would have to stay in Kandy for the remainder of
the week. Unfortunately, hotel prizes were increasing quickly. Therefore we were lucky in
succeeding to obtain accommodation in the seven guest rooms of the IFS at normal cost. However
with 25 participants for the excursion and only 21 beds, this resulted in many participants having to
share beds. All during the day relatives and parents of all participants and speakers tried to reach us
in order to establish the whereabouts and safety of our participants. Quickly it became clear that the
IFS could not cover costs of international calls and therefore we had to rely on local calling cards
and mobile phone cards.
During December 28th, I finally received a phone call from Dr. Jayantha, head of Computer science
at the University in Matara. He told me that Prof. Caromel was being treated in a hospital in
Colombo for the injuries sustained during the tsunami. Furthermore, Prof. Attali and their two sons
were listed as missing and the worst was feared. Also, we were still unable to receive any news from
our speaker Mr. Mueller who was staying right at the beach in a small fishery town close to Matara.
In the evening of December 28th our baggage rescue party returned from Matara. They had been
able to retrieve most of the luggage although two of our hotels had been severely damaged and staff
killed. The third hotel had been flooded. Their successful return meant that all tickets and passports
had been recovered safely for the foreign participants. Thus we were now able to proceed with the
reconfirmation or rescheduling of flights back from Sri Lanka to their home countries. This was
achieved from December 29 - 31 for all participants.
On December 29th, we fortunately learned that Mr. Mueller and his wife had not been affected
severely by the tsunami. Only the garden wall in their house had been broken.
Unfortunately the news was not equally good for the Caromel/Attali family. Isabelle Attali and their
two sons remain missing. On December 31st, I visited Prof. Caromel in the hospital in Colombo. He
was being treated well in the hospital recovering from his injuries and skin infections. However, his
and our attempts as conference organizers in securing the whereabouts of his wife and the sons had
not been successful in the meantime. Dr. Jayantha and Dr. Abeyratne – Heads of Ruhuna Computer
Science and Mathematics – had gone down to the Yala National Park themselves to see if they could
locate them but to no avail. Furthermore, they had also personally visited all the hospitals in the
affected areas in search of these children and Prof Jayantha even taking the bitter experience in
looking at the dead-ones. Also, all of us have tried to get information via the phone from police
stations, hospitals and reporters in the area where the tsunami had struck them. We have also made
television/radio/newspaper announcements about the family but none of these efforts has thus far
been successful. Janak Wedagedera had been able to collect almost all the personal belongings of
the Caromel/Attali family from the devastated hotel on the Polhena beach in Matara, where the
family had stayed (and left their baggage while they were away for Yala) . He later brought these to
Colombo by a hired van and handed them over to Prof. Caromel who was still at the hospital there.
The trips made by the members of the organizing committee after the tsunami were done under very
harsh road/social conditions – at some occasions they had great difficulties in finding fuel.
3/6
The local organizing committee still continues its in search of any clue of Isabelle, Ugo and Tom,
reacting to any new information that comes from down south.
In conclusion, the 1st week of the winter school was very successful from a scientific perspective.
The mix of participants and foreigners as well as the emphasis on practical sessions worked as
anticipated and all participants were very happy about the progress they made in understanding the
diverse selection of topics. The second week was dominated by the tsunami, the involvement of
some of our speakers in the catastrophe and the suspected loss of our scientific and personal
belongings. As conference organizers, we quickly realized that a continuation of the winter school
under these circumstances (and the potential further problems in the coastal areas) was not possible
and concentrated on returning everyone home safely.
Last, we would like to thank all the participants and all speakers for their efforts in the first week
and their support, help and understanding in the second week.
As a result of the cancellation of the week 2 programme a small amount of CIMPA funds is
remaining in the University of Ruhuna bank account. As we have already informed in our e-mail
communication with Mr. Jambu of CIMPA, the organizing committee is extremely thankful to
CIMPA for the kind permission prevailed to use these funds to form an advanced
undergraduate/graduate level scholarship fund to help the tsunami affected Ruhuna university
students and also to students with financial difficulties in carrying out their studies/research. For this
purpose the CIMPA-RISCMAP organizing committee is using the Educational Support Foundation
- Ruhuna Mathematics which consists mainly of the members of the organizing committee of the
CIMPA-RISCMAP 2004.
We also would like to mention that as we proposed in our original proposal to the CIMPA, the
organizing committee of the CIMPA-RISCMAP has been able to initiate an interdisciplinary
research programme at the Faculty of Science Ruhuna University. This shall be initiated by a chain
of interdisciplinary research talks commencing from 8th February 2005 of which the first shall be
conducted by Dr Samantha Weerasinghe who was an invited speaker for the CIMPA-RISCMAP and
who could not complete his session due to the Tsunami. Depending on the future financial support
which we will be able to secure, we plan to extend this by inviting speakers from the South Asian
and South-East Asian regions.
With the encouragement the organizing committee received so far from the main financial
contributors of the school, the CIMPA, all the members are now looking forward in organizing a
new international CIMPA school towards the end of 2006.
Lecturers
Name
I. Attali
D. Caromel
S. de Silva
Affiliation
INRIA, France
Univ. de Nice, CNRS, IUF, France
Department of Chemistry,
University of Sri Jayawardenapura,
Nugegoda, Sri Lanka
E.M.
Department of Physics, Zanjan
Fouladvand
University, Iran
J.A. Müller
BOBST Group, Switzerland
A. Nanayakkara Institute of Fundamental Studies,
Kandy, SL
R.V. Pai
Goa University, Goa, India
J. Rajendra
Department of Physics, Eastern
University, SL
4/6
Lecture Topic
Grids and Security
Objects, Components, and Grids
Computational Chemistry
Modelling traffic and other complex
systems
IT security
Computational Quantum Chaos
Density-matrix renormalization
Computational Physics
R.A. Römer
M. Schreiber
J.R.
Wedagedera
S. Weerasingha
Department of Physics and Centre
for Scientific Computing, University
of Warwick, United Kingdom
Institut für Physik, Technische
Universität, Chemnitz, Germany
Department of Mathematics,
University of Ruhuna, Matara, SL
Department of Chemistry,
University of Ruhuna, Matara, SL
Computational Physics
Computational Physics
Statistical Mechanics of Artificial Immune
Systems
Computational Chemistry
Scientific Programme
Week 1
Location
Time \
Day
08:0009:00
09:0009:45
09:4510:30
10:3011:00
Ruhuna
Ruhuna
Ruhuna
Ruhuna
Ruhuna
Ruhuna
Kandy
Dec 20
Dec 21
Dec 22
Dec 23
Dec 24
Dec 25
Dec 26
Breakfast
Breakfast
Breakfast
Breakfast
Breakfast
Breakfast
Breakfast
(bus)
Schreiber
Schreiber
Fouladvand Fouladvand
Registration
and Welcome
Nanayakkara Pai
Caromel
Caromel
Caromel
Tea
Tea
Tea
Tea
Tea
Tea
11:0011:45
11:4514:00
14:0014:45
Schreiber
Pai
Attali
Attali
Attali
Lunch
Lunch
Lunch
Lunch
Lunch
14:4515:30
Weerasingha
15:3016:00
Tea
Tea
Tea
Tea
16:0016:45
Müller
Müller
Attali (P)
Caromel (P)
17:3019:00
Schreiber (P)
Pai (P)
Supper
Attali (P)
Poster
Poster
Supper
Lunch
Nanayakkara
Pai
16:4517:30
Tour of
elephant
orphanage
Supper
Conference
dinner A
Evening
5/6
Supper
Caromel
(P)
Tea
Tea
Leave
for
Kandy
(Supper
on bus)
Tour of
Kandy
Week 2 (this part of the programme was never executed due to the tsunami)
Location
Time \
Day
08:0009:00
Kandy
Ruhuna
Ruhuna
Ruhuna
Ruhuna
Ruhuna
Ruhuna
Dec 27
Dec 28
Dec 29
Dec 30
Dec 31
Jan 01
Jan 02
Breakfast
(bus)
Breakfast
Breakfast
Breakfast
Breakfast
Breakfast
Fouladvand
Rajendra Rajendra
Müller
Weerasingha
Römer
Römer
Römer
Tea
Tea
Tea
Tea
Wedagedera
Weerasingha
(P)
Rajendra
(P)
Lunch
Lunch
Lunch
09:0009:45
09:4510:30
10:3011:00
Tour of
Tea
Factory,
Nu'reliya
11:0011:45
11:4514:00
14:0014:45
14:4515:30
15:3016:00
Lunch
(Victoria
Gardens)
Wedagedera
Return to
Matara
17:3019:00
Evening
Römer (P)
Tea
Oghre/Malek
Return to
Matara
Supper
(bus)
Return
Farewell
Tea
Tea
(Waterfall)
16:0016:45
16:4517:30
Fouladvand
(P)
Return
Tea
Radakrishnan/
Poster
Supper
Supper
Conference
dinner B
Supper
A final version of the budget with detailed breakdown of how the CIMPA funds were spend shall be
mailed to you upon completion. Please note that we are currently still waiting to get bills from the
hotels that were severely affected and in some cases destroyed or heavily damaged by the tsunami.
Yours sincerely,
Rudolf A. Römer
6/6
Répartition par nationalité des participants à l'école
"Computational and Mathematical Physics"
20-31 décembre 2004, Ruhuna, Matara (Sri Lanka)
2
SRI LANKA
15
1
NEPAL
1
PAKISTAN
4
BANGLADESH
1
INDE
4
IRAN
2
NIGER
1
PHILIPPINES
2
2
4
15
1
TOTAL = 30
4
1