Participant Testimonials

Sep 11 - Sep 16, 2011

The workshop introduced me to several new contacts whose work is very relevant to my field but whom I would not have otherwise met do to the traditional departmental disciplinary boundaries that divide us. Similarly many of the presentations I found particularly interesting and would not have seen at the other conferences I attend during the year. I took away several methods which I hope to apply to my own research. One of these statistical methods I hope to discuss further with a colleague I met at the meeting and hopefully it can grow into a more substantial collaboration.

Alistair Boettiger post-doc
Chemistry, Harvard University

This workshop was very useful for raising awareness of potential collaborations with other researchers in the field. I made tentative plans for three such collaborations, and I'm excited to see how they develop.

Bernie Daigle University of California at Santa Barbara

The workshop was excellent, with a dynamic group of scientists at the top of the field. There was plenty of time for discussion and the selection of talks was fantastic. I came out of the workshop with several new ideas and potential collaborators.

Mary Dunlop Assistant Professor
School of Engineering, University of Vermont

It was one of the best workshops I have ever participated in. It certainly has favorably impacted and will continue to impact my research. It allowed me to get a general view of the discipline, learning new things that are relatively far from my research topic and also meeting people and learning lots of things in specialized topics. It certainly has fostered a collaboration, that was barely in progress before the workshop, with one of the participants of the symposium. But it will also allow me to create new connections and collaborations with other participants. It has greatly contributed to get new motivations for my work. I think the workshop had the right combination of: i) exceptional people, ii) researchers from my generation and iii) lots of discussion and questions during the talks. I am definitely grateful to BIRS for inviting me to such an exceptional workshop.

Andre Estevez-Torres Laboratoire de photonique et de nanostructures, Centre national de la recherche scientifique

It was a great meeting !! not only in the strict technical aspects, but also on the open and collaborative efforts most of the participants did to 'translate' their expertise to others, which certainly encouraged the 'cross-pollination' of ideas. It profoundly affected my views on several topics that will most certainly imprint on my research activities. My deepest congratulations to the organizers.

Diego Ferreiro Dr
Departamento de Quimica Biologica, Universidad de Buenos Aires

It was a great meeting. I got to chat with many colleagues, and talked about future collaborations with two of them. The informal talks helped me put my own research in perspective and think about it in different ways.

Thierry Mora Laboratoire de physique statistique, Ecole normale superieure

Our workshop was an enormous success, and I want to thank you and BIRS very much for providing the perfect location and environment for such a stimulating meeting. I personally met with collaborators to make important progress on two ongoing works, and started three projects with new colleagues. Online feedback from our participants suggests that my experience was commonplace among our participants--Many new collaborations were born out of this meeting, and I expect that the effect of this workshop will be seen well into the future.

Brian Munsky Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory