Quiet times at last (and a word about Bachelier)

With the first wave of visitors subsiding, we are entering a period of relative calm in the thematic program until the next major workshop at the end of March. The plan is to use this time to get to know the work done by the several postdocs in residence by making them give talks in the visitor's seminar series, which will start in full swing next Tuesday.

I certainly welcome quiet days like yesterday, when I have the chance to work on my own lectures and research problems.

In lieu of excitement, I watched Tom Hurd and Sebastian Jaimungal wrestle all day with the mountain of abstracts and papers for the Bachelier Congress. Even after the Sunday deadline had passed, submissions were still coming in, so the actual shutting down of the web interface they used (EasyChair) was a delicate stopping problem.

In the end the total number of submissions surpassed the London (2008) congress, confirming the definite increasing trend observed since the first congress in Paris (2000).  Kudos for the organizing committee !