Unruh & Wald Fest
A Celebration of the Careers & 60th Birthdays of WG Unruh & RM Wald

August 18-20, 2006

UBC, Vancouver, BC, CANADA

Supported by CIAR, PITP, CITA, U Chicago and UBC
NEW!! SEE THE FULL SCHEDULE HERE!

Speakers and Minischedule (FREE ADMISSION TO ALL TALKS)
NEW!! SEE THE FULL SCHEDULE HERE!


PARTICIPANTS
  • Ian Affleck
  • Stephen Anco
  • Abhay Ashtekar
  • Jim Bardeen
  • Charles Bennett
  • Miles Blencowe
  • Dick Bond
  • Johan Brannlund
  • Jim Carolan
  • Matt Choptuik
  • Bill Dalby
  • Tevian Dray
  • Peter d'Eath
  • Andrew DeBenedictis
  • Redouane Fakir
  • Eanna Flanagan
  • Nichol Furey
  • Brendan Foster
  • John Friedman
  • Andrei Frolov
  • Valeri Frolov
  • Steve Fulling
  • David Garfinkle
  • Sijie Gao
  • Daniel Green
  • Phil Gregory
  • Carsten Gundlach
  • Salman Habib
  • Noureddine Hambli
  • Walter Hardy
  • James Hartle
  • Atsushi Higuchi
  • Stefan Hollands
  • Daniel Holz
  • Gary Horowitz
  • Bei-Lok Hu
  • Viqar Husain
  • Jim Isenberg
  • Akihiro Ishibashi
  • Ted Jacobson
  • Nick Kaiser
  • Bryan Kelleher
  • Sang Pyo Kim
  • Karel Kuchar
  • Hanz-Peter Kunzle
  • Kayll Lake
  • Denis Leahy
  • Luis Lehner
  • Bojan Losic
  • David Malament
  • Charlie Misner
  • Steve Morris
  • Peter Newbury
  • Bruno Mundim
  • Niall O'Murchadha
  • Inaki Olabarrieta
  • Jonathan Oppenheim
  • Don Page
  • Peter Palffy-Muhoray
  • Leigh Palmer
  • Leonard Parker
  • Roger Penrose
  • Frans Pretorius
  • Eric Poisson
  • Marek Radzikowski
  • Benni Reznik
  • Tom Roman
  • Misao Sasaki
  • Steve Savitt
  • George Sawatzky
  • Kristin Schleich
  • Ralf Schutzhold
  • Douglas Scott
  • Mike Seifert
  • Mehran Shaghaghi
  • Mark Shegelski
  • Sergei Slobodov
  • Lee Smolin
  • Martin Snajdr
  • George Soli
  • Daniel Sudarsky
  • Saul Teukolsky
  • KIp Thorne
  • Anand Thirumalai
  • Sanaz Vafei
  • Dan Vollick
  • Thomas Waterhouse
  • Pete Watson
  • Rob Woodside
  • Jimmy York
  • Jeff Young
  • Jim Zibin
  • Wojciech Zurek
REGRETS

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Phone
Cell
Fax
Matt Choptuik
604-822-2412
604-721-4695
604-822-5324
Monique Choptuik
604-222-9424
604-721-7465

David Garfinkle



Peter Newbury
604-827-5582
604-822-5324
Pat Unruh



Margaret Villacin
604-822-1383

604-822-5324
SCHEDULE

See this link for the complete meeting schedule.  Note that the conference will run full days Friday and Saturday, August 18 and 19, and a half day on Sunday, August 20, finishing up at about noon on Sunday.  Nominally then, participants should plan to arrive Thursday, August 17th or earlier and depart Sunday late afternoon or evening, or later. Participants should be aware that Vancouver International Airport is very busy in the summer, and that security line-ups for US-bound passengers, in particular, can still be up to 2 hours or more long in the worst case.  Of course, with very recent events (i.e. the purported plot to take out multiple UK - US planes via liquid/gel explosives) waits are likely to be worst in US and UK airports, but will almost certainly be lengthened for most travellers.

AVAILABILITY OF LAPTOPS & WIRELESS (WLAN)

Especially given the fact that laptops may need to be treated as checked baggage for at least some participants, out-of-town attendees should note that we will have several (at least 4) laptops that can be used for the purposes of staging and presenting talks.  We will also set up guest accounts on Bill's (who's else, eh?) Theory Machines in Hennings so that participants can check their e-mail etc via a land-line as needed.  All participants will be provided with access to UBC's near-universal wireless (vis a vis coverage on campus) at the time of the meeting.

REGISTRATION AND FEES

1) Invited out of town attendees

  • $40.00 (CAN or US) registration fee, cash only at time of registration. Includes one (1) banquet ticket.
  • Additional banquet tickets: $15.00
2) Local attendees
  • Banquet tickets:
    • Professor (any rank) or equivalent
      • $30.00 for the first banquet ticket
      • $15.00 for subsequent tickets
    • All others (students, PDFs etc)
      • $15.00 each (we MAY have to impose a per-person limit)
There are NO other fees for the conference.  IN PARTICULAR, ADMISSION TO ALL TALKS IS FREE FOR LOCALS.

All invited out-of-towners and locals attending the banquet MUST PAY THEIR FEES IN CASH ONLY DURING ONE OF THE TWO REGISTRATION PERIODS OR PRIOR TO PENROSE'S TALK
  1. 0900-0945 FRI AUG 18, HEBB THEATER
  2. 1900-1950 FRI AUG 18, WESBROOK BLDG, ROOM 105
  3. 0900-1000 SAT AUG 19, FOREST SCIENCES CENTER, ROOM 1005
We are very sorry, but we are unable to process either credit cards or personal cheques.

Note, however, that there are multiple ATM machines in the Student Union Bldg, adjacent to the main Physics & Astronomy complex, and other locations on campus, and that there are two bank branches (CIBC and Bank of Montreal) in the University Village.

ACCOMMODATION

Please contact Margaret Villacin, PITP program administrator, directly at villacin@physics.ubc.ca to arrange for your accommodations.

We are currently recommending the Gage Towers Cluster Apartments for those travelling alone, and on a budget, but Margaret will be able to provide you with a wider range (including price of course) of options. In particular, note that Gage Towers provides guests with private bedrooms and telephones, but with washroom and kitchen facilities shared amongst four units. If sharing bathrooms etc. isn't your bag, you should definitely contact Margaret sooner rather than later in order to find suitable accomodations.

TRAVEL

Participants are requested to make their own travel plans, irrespective of whether they will be reimbursed via the meeting budget or not. Again, however, should you need basic information/advice re travel to and from Vancouver, please contact Margaret.

BANQUET

The Fest will include a catered banquet dinner on Saturday evening at the
  • Golden Ocean Seafood Restaurant, 2046 W 41st Ave, Vancouver (Kerrisdale), 604-263-8886
All particpants with dietary restrictions (e.g. vegetarian), special dislikes/likes etc., please inform Margaret of same as soon as possible.

PLEASE REFER TO THE REGISTRATION AND FEES SECTION ABOVE FOR INFORMATION CONCERNING THE COST OF BANQUET TICKETS.


THINGS TO DO WHILE IN VANCOUVER

There are few urban places in the known universe more pleasant in summer than Vancouver, BC, and particpants are urged to take advantage of this fact to the extent possible.  Although we will not be formally arranging specific outings, any/all of the locals among the Organizing Committee (Matt, Magaret, Monique, Peter, Pat) will be happy to suggest options.

Here are a few of the perennial favorites arranged in rough order of commuting distance from UBC.  Most, if not all, are accessible via Translink (the semi-rapid transit that serves the Vancouver Metropolitan Area), although a car is far more convenient for any of the attractions on the North Shore (N). Note that Translink has a very convenient Trip Planner Web interface. For trips to and from UBC use "UBC" in the "To" or "From" slots, respectively.


GETTING INVOLVED

Want to help out?  Send Matt e-mail and/or check out the Volunteers and Jobs Page!!


Maintained by MW Choptuik, who is supported by CIAR, NSERC, CFI, BCKDF and UBC.