SNP 2015, the 53rd Meeting of the Society for Natural Philosophy

The Society and Its 53rd Annual Meeting

In the spirit of the ideas of Galileo and Newton, the Society for Natural Philosophy was founded by the late Prof. Clifford Truesdell with the aim of promoting the study of Physics (the Greek etymology of which is, in fact, physis, i.e., nature) by means of the language of Mathematics. The 53rd Meeting of the Society of Natural Philosophy (SNP 2015) is dedicated to Geometry and Mechanics. Differential Geometry is not only at the basis of General Relativity, but also of Continuum Mechanics, and it has served to describe innumerable phenomena, from crystal plasticity in metals to growth and remodelling in biological tissues. 

Honouring Marcelo Epstein

We also take this occasion to celebrate our friend and colleague Marcelo Epstein, on occasion of his 70th birthday. Marcelo is not only one of the foremost scientists at the University of Calgary, but also a friend and a role model for many of us. Although Marcelo turned 70 on the 3rd of December 2014, we thought that a conference here in the Rocky Mountains in the middle of the winter would have been attractive only to skiers and polar bears, which is why we decided to postpone the event to the summer of 2015.

Marcelo was born in Buenos Aires on the 3rd of December 1944. Originally trained in Civil Engineering, he received his Diploma of Honour from the University of Buenos Aires in 1967, his MSc (with Honours) in 1969 and his PhD in 1972 from the Technion in Haifa. After a post doctoral fellowship at the University of Alberta in 1974-1975, Marcelo was appointed as an Assistant Professor in Engineering at the University of Calgary in 1976, where he became Full Professor in 1983, with an adjunct professorship in Kinesiology. In his research, Marcelo started in Civil Engineering and then moved to shells and plates and finally to Continuum Mechanics and Differential Geometry. Marcelo's contributions are milestones in Geometric Continuum Mechanics and include the development of the relation between Noll's theory of material uniformity and Eshelby's energy-momentum tensor, the theory of inhomogeneities and their evolution, the theory of growth and remodelling, as well as many applications in Biomechanics.

A true Renaissance Man, Marcelo is not only a prominent scientist, but also an enthusiast humanist. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Classics (First Class Honours) in 1993 from the University of Calgary, and is adjunct Professor in the Department of Classics and Religion, Faculty of Arts. He created and teaches (totally on a voluntary basis) the courses LATI205 The Latin of Science I and LATI207 The Latin of Science II, with the intent of providing students in Science and Engineering with the basis of Latin grammar and the ability to read in the original Latin classical scientific works from Vitruvius to Newton. Marcelo is also a musician, accomplished in the piano, the transverse flute and the recorder, and an expert and lover of Classical Music. Moreover, he speaks fluently Spanish, Hebrew, English and Italian and reads, along with Latin and Classical Greek, also Arabic (as well as French and Yiddish, which he will deny, if asked about). 

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Society for Natural Philosophy for agreeing in celebrating Marcelo within SNP 2015 and supporting the meeting. Moreover, we would like to thank the Schulich School of Engineering, the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, the Faculty of Kinesiology, the Faculty of Arts, the Department of Classics and Religion and the Office of the Provost, for their institutional, financial and logistic support in celebrating one of the foremost scientists of the University of Calgary.

Welcome to Calgary for SNP2015!

We enthusiastically welcome you to join us in Calgary from Wednesday the 19th to Friday the 21st of August 2015, for SNP 2015.
Warmest regards

Salvatore Federico (Chair), salvatore.federico [at] ucalgary.ca
Les Sudak (Co-Chair), lsudak [at] ucalgary.ca
Qiao Sun (Co-Chair), qsun [at] ucalgary.ca
Anna Vainchtein (SNP Representative), aav4 [at] pitt.edu