This meeting fulfils two functions:

1. This meeting fulfils two functions: It is the first Workshop of a six-month Newton Institute programme on Topological Dynamics in the Physical and Biological Sciences. It is an IUTAM Symposium, a sequel to The IUTAM Symposium Topological Fluid Mechanics held in Cambridge, August 1989

2. Institute • INI Home • Programmes • Web Seminars • Programme Home • Programme • Contacts • Mailing List • Invited Participants • Seminars • This Week • Next Week • Full list • Publications • Preprints • Books • Final Scientific Report • --> • Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences • Topological Dynamics in the Physical and Biological Sciences • 16 July - 21 December 2012 • Organisers: Konrad Bajer (Warsaw), Tom Kephart (Vanderbilt), Yoshi Kimura (Nagoya), Keith Moffatt (Cambridge) and Andrzej Stasiak (Lausanne) • Scientific Advisory Committee: Jason Cantarella (Georgia), Andrew Gilbert (Exeter), Raymond Goldstein (Cambridge), Boris Khesin (Toronto), Shigeo Kida (Kyoto), Mikhail Monastyrski (Moscow), Sergey Nazarenko (Warwick), Wilma Olsen (Rutgers), Renzo Ricca (Milan), De Witt Sumners (Florida State), Lynn Zechiedrich (Houston, USA) • Workshops • 23-27 July 2012Topological Fluid Dynamics (IUTAM Symposium)3-7 September 2012Topological Aspects of DNA Function and Protein Folding14-20 October 2012Tangled Magnetic Fields in Astro- and Plasma Physics (A Satellite Meeting to be held at the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Edinburgh)3-7 December 2012Quantised Flux in Tightly Knotted and Linked Systems

3. The 1989 Symposiumfocused on: • Flow kinematics and Lagrangian chaos; • Dynamo theory; • Relaxation and formation of discontinuities; • Two-dimensional and quasi-two-dimensional flows; • Topology of three-dimensional flows; • Vortex interaction and reconnexion; • Homogeneous turbulence; • Inhomogeneous turbulence and convective flows. • The 2012 Symposium has been planned to focus mainly on: • Steady vortical solutions of the Euler equations and their stability; • Interaction of vortex pairs, vortex rings, etc • Vortex reconnection by viscosity; • The finite-time singularity problem for Euler and Navier-Stokes; • Application to the structure of turbulence and the process of turbulent dissipation. • ...but flow kinematics and Lagrangian chaos remains a hot topic, and so is also included.

5. Proceedings of this Symposium IUTAM has a contract with Elsevier for online publication of its Symposia Proceedings in their series “IUTAM Procedia”; open source, so freely available. We have driven a ‘hard bargain’ with Elsevier for the Procedia of this Symposium. It will be possible to order hard copies of the volume at a price of c. $40 per volume (paperback). We hope you will submit your paper soon (if you have not already done so). If you are giving a lecture, a LaTex template has been sent to you. If you have any problem with this, please let us know, and we will try to sort it out. Your contribution will be reviewed, and a decision on acceptance sent to you by 15 September; Deadline for receipt of revised version: 31 October

6. I wish to pay tribute to Hassan Aref, whowas a member of the International Scientific Committee of this IUTAM Symposium. He was a distinguished member of the IUTAM community, and Secretary of the Congress Committee of IUTAM, a position of great responsibility. He died suddenly of heart failure on 9th September 2011. Mark Stremler has taken Hassan’s place on the Committee of this Symposium. Morten Brønswill give the Aref Memorial Lecture tomorrow (Tuesday, 16:45-17:30) Relative equilibria of point vortices. Hassan Aref Virginia Tech. 28 Sept. 1950 – 9 Sept. 2011