The biggest international conference on statistical physics, STATPHYS, was held at Lyon’s Palais des Congrès from July 18 to 22. The Mérieux amphitheater was indeed too small to accommodate some 1,300 participants from all around the world. Held every three years since 1945 under the leadership of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), STATPHYS brings together all the areas of statistical physics. The last editions were held in Seoul (South Korea) and Cairns (Australia).
There were participants from around 50 countries. The biggest delegations, after France’s, were from Japan (119), Germany (94), the USA (85), Italy (73), South Korea (70), but STATPHYS also welcomed a handful of physicists who had come from Latvia, the Philippines and Uzbekistan.
Participants praised the level of the various plenary speakers and presentations as remarkable. The poster sessions – bringing together about 700 presentations – were also great success. New scientific collaborations were born thanks to them, as well as during informal meetings in the Parc de la Tête d’Or, and the gala at Lyon city hall.
During the conference, the Boltzmann medal, a prestigious prize for physicists, was awarded to Dutchman Daan Frenkel and Frenchman Yves Pomeau.
STATPHYS was also an opportunity to highlight the results reached by French laboratories, notably by those in Lyon-Saint-Etienne, via the contributions of their researchers at the conference and their role in the various scientific committees.
Also noteworthy was the very convivial atmosphere throughout the conference. It started with the cheerful welcome by a dynamic team of volunteers – not professionals, but still very efficient – and continued with the visit of Lyon’s famous “traboules” (while others visited the physics lab), two morning jogs around the Parc de la Tête d’Or, and an inter-continental soccer tournament on Wednesday afternoon: Team America can be proud to have won the first STATPHYS World Cup!
In this extraordinarily enriching and friendly atmosphere, this conference, to which the entire physics lab at the ENS de Lyon contributed, turned out to be a splendid success. The next edition will be held in Buenos Aires in July 2019.

From left to right: Daan Frenkel, Itamar Procaccia (president of  IUPAP C3 comittee) and Yves Pomeau

Behind the scenes
An enthusiastic welcome team and a tight-knit and hard-working scientific committeees

From left to right: Marie Holdsworth, Marine Bergeron, Vincent Mauduit, Laurence Mauduit, Timothée Dauxois, Nadine Clervaux, Chloé Dauxois, Fatiha Bouchneb, Jeanne Piegay. 

From left to right: Nicolas Taberlet, Michel Peyrard, Peter Holdsworth and Thierry Dauxois, members of Laboratoire de Physique at ENS de Lyon. Missing: Angel Alastuey.

Pictures: Brice Saint-Michel