STATPHYS 2016: a success for Lyon

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.