Middle European Cooperation in Statistical Physics

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The Middle European Cooperation in Statistical Physics (MECO) is an international conference on statistical physics which takes place every year in a different country of Europe. [1] MECO evolved in the early 1970s with the aim of bridging the gap between the communities of scientists from the Eastern and Western parts of Europe, separated as they were by the Iron Curtain. Since then, MECO conferences have become the yearly nomadic reference meetings for the community of scientists who are active in the field of Statistical Physics in the broader sense, including modern interdisciplinary applications to biology, Finance , information theory, and quantum computation.

Contents

History

The MECO conferences were deliberately created as an attempt to establish and maintain an exchange between scientists in the fields of statistical and condensed matter physics from Western and Eastern countries, overcoming the hurdles of the "Iron Curtain". [2] In 1972, the Hungarian theorist Peter Szépfalusy started activities about organising a meeting of physicists from middle European countries, who worked in the area of critical phenomena. Another meeting took place in Budapest in the following year and the first MECO conference was organized 1974 in Vienna. Founding fathers of the conference included physicists, experimentalists as well as theorists, doing, especially, research on ferroelectricity, like Robert Blinc from Jugoslavia and K. Alex Müller from Switzerland.

In order to develop this concept in the mid-1970s and 1980's, the original intention was to have each year a conference, alternating on either side of the Iron Curtain. If it took place on the Eastern side, scientists from the communist countries could easier obtain permission to travel to the conference site. In addition, it was deemed essential to provide free (or very cheap) accommodation for participants and the low cost of attending MECO was also useful after the fall of the Iron Curtain, due to the resulting difficult economic situation in the Eastern part of Europe in the 1990s.

In this way, the organizers of the early MECO conferences succeeded, perhaps for the first time, to bring numerous scientists, despite the political difficulties, together and to create a lively atmosphere of fruitful scientific exchange. This has greatly helped to establish many collaborations which lasted up to the present time, when, partly thanks to the European Union, many more such collaborations have become possible. The ties created by MECO, however, still are useful to help scientific exchange, even though the scientific emphasis has changed from the traditional fields of statistical mechanics and solid-state physics to interdisciplinary themes of current interest as well.

In February 2022 the Ukrainian member of MECO was attacked by Russian military forces. Ukraine's President Zelenskyy, said a new Iron Curtain is coming. This situation disposed the MECO advisory board to the following Statement:

"The advisory board of MECO is shocked by the actions of the leadership of Russia against Ukraine – a MECO member. This act of violence goes against the values and aspirations of Europe’s scientists who, with the creation of MECO in 1974, sought to overcome the iron curtain that divided Eastern and Western countries.

The invasion of a free country is a brutal attack on the freedom of all nations, communities, and individuals. MECO’s aim is to enable scientific freedom for the academic community as an essential part of peaceful cooperation between countries. Academic freedom is only possible by respecting national freedom. The advisory board therefore calls on the academic community worldwide to maintain and support these values by condemning the actions of Russia’s leadership and calling for withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine with immediate effect."

Past conferences

MECO usually gathers from 100 to 150 scientists almost every year. Below is the list of the past conference and their locations. Green color denotes the ones which took place on west side of Iron Curtain, red color – those on east. Such separation disappeared naturally after fall of USSR in 1991.

YearConferenceLocationCountry
1974MECO Vienna Flag of Austria.svg
1975MECO 2 Regensburg Flag of Germany.svg
1976MECO 3 Bled Flag of Yugoslavia (1946-1992).svg
1977MECO 4 Unterägeri Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg
1978MECO 5 Boszkowo Flag of Poland.svg
1979MECO 6 Trieste Flag of Italy.svg
1980MECO 7 Budapest Flag of Hungary.svg
1981MECO 8 Saarbrücken Flag of Germany.svg
1982MECO 9 Wien Flag of Austria.svg
1983MECO 10 Bled Flag of Yugoslavia (1946-1992).svg
1984MECO 11 Gernrode Flag of East Germany.svg
1985MECO 12 Aussois Flag of France.svg
1986MECO 13 Liblice Flag of the Czech Republic.svg
1987MECO 14 Puidoux Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg
1988MECO 15 Karpacz Flag of Poland.svg
1989MECO 16 Siena Flag of Italy.svg
1990MECO 17 Balatonfüred Flag of Hungary.svg
1991MECO 18 Duisburg Flag of Germany.svg
1994MECO 19 Smolenice Flag of Slovakia.svg
1995MECO 20 Wels Flag of Austria.svg
1996MECO 21 Bled Flag of Slovenia.svg
1997MECO 22 Szklarska Poręba Flag of Poland.svg
1998MECO 23 Trieste Flag of Italy.svg
1999MECO 24 Wittenberg Flag of Germany.svg
2000MECO 25 Pont-a-Mousson Flag of France.svg
2001MECO 26 Prague Flag of the Czech Republic.svg
2002MECO 27 Sopron Flag of Hungary.svg
2003MECO 28 Saarbrücken Flag of Germany.svg
2004MECO 29 Bratislava Flag of Slovakia.svg
2005 MECO 30 Cortona Flag of Italy.svg
2006MECO 31 Primošten Flag of Croatia.svg
2007MECO 32 Lądek-Zdrój Flag of Poland.svg
2008 MECO 33 Wels Flag of Austria.svg
2009 MECO 34 Leipzig Flag of Germany.svg
2010 MECO 35 Pont-a-Mousson Flag of France.svg
2011 MECO 36 Lviv Flag of Ukraine.svg
2012 MECO 37 Tatranské Matliare Flag of Slovakia.svg
2013 MECO 38 Trieste Flag of Italy.svg
2014 MECO 39 Coventry Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
2015 MECO 40 Esztergom Flag of Hungary.svg
2016 MECO 41 Vienna Flag of Austria.svg
2017 MECO 42 Lyon Flag of France.svg
2018 MECO 43 Kraków Flag of Poland.svg
2019 MECO 44 Kloster Seeon Flag of Germany.svg
2020 MECO 45 Cluj Flag of Romania.svg
2021 MECO 46 Riga Flag of Latvia.svg
2022 MECO47 Erice Flag of Italy.svg
2023 MECO48 Stará Lesná Flag of Slovakia.svg

Future conferences

[MECO49] will take place in Kranjska Gora (Slovenia) on April 21–25, 2024.

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