Local Facilities: We have at our disposal a guest house with 13 rooms each with two beds. Its location is breathtakingly beautiful. The rooms are simply furnished but spacious, have TVs, kitchenettes and kept up in a very clean state. The guest house has a very large reception room with several sitting centers, very convenient for evening conversations or discussions. Close by is a swimming pool. I strongly suggest that you do not forget to bring with you swimming suits. In case of need, we have access to several more rooms in brand new graduate student dormitories. This is a complex of stone built houses. The rooms are mostly single but very convenient.

We have two seminar rooms to choose from. One in the administration building is bigger and the other one in the physics building is slightly smaller and in my opinion is more suitable to our needs. There are LCD and overhead projectors in both rooms as well as whiteboards.

Internet Connection: There will be at least two internet connected computers in the physics building that will be freely accessible to participants. There is also a computer lab we will have access to on a FCFS basis.

Food: There is only one restaurant in Sde Boker itself. However, I am considering also the possibility of having the meals provided by a caterer. Certainly, breakfast will be organized, buffet style, in the guest house. We can have the lunch served either in the guesthouse, the restaurant (at specially designated tables and with upgraded food) or possibly in a special room in a building adjacent to the physics building.

Workshop Schedule: I plan to have the lectures and discussions start at 9:00AM. This in order to allow people from Beer Sheva to get there in time. Sde Boker is about 45 minutes south of Beer Sheva. That starting time allows interested participants to take advantage of the cool mornings and go down to the Ein Avdat canyon with its wild life, waterfall and waterpools. Certainly it ranks as one of the more beautiful spots in Israel. I will negotiate with the National Parks Authority people that we be allowed an early entry on one of the days.
I want to keep Wednesday afternoon free, so that we can have an outing to one of the many beautiful spots in the mountainous Negev.
I mentioned in an earlier letter the Revivim thermal baths which is an option for an after the conference outings. This place is open till 10:00 PM and offers inner and outer hot water pools. In particular the later provide a starry sky guaranteed to be cloud free.

Transportation: Considering that the workshop comes after the MTNS, I expect that most participants will arrive on Saturday/Sunday July 10,11. If I know ahead of time your arrival time, I will organize cabs to take you to Beer Sheva. We would have a welcoming party at our home on Sunday and after that travel in an organized way to Sde Boker.

Conference Lectures: I go on the assumption that all invited participants will want to lecture. Please, send your abstract if you have not done so yet.

Conference Material: Although I do not plan to have conference proceedings (unless there is a widespread demand for it), I do want to have as much relevant printed material as possible available to all participants. This material may be lecture notes on relevant topics, preprints and reprints of related papers, slide lectures, proposed open problems etc. Andrea Gombani has volunteered to organize the material. The plan is to burn the collected material on CDs towards the end of the meeting and distribute it to all participants as well as keep it for some time on a designated website. Andrea's e-mail address is: Andrea.Gombani@ladseb.pd.cnr.it

Tourism: Sde Boker is located on the spice route that connected the southern part of the Arabian peninsula and the Mediterranean sea. There are many remains connected with this, most notably the remains of several Nabbatean cities that catered to the spice and perfume trade.
The southern part of Israel has many attractions, Eilat, the Dead Sea and Massada are some of the highlights. I suggest that you take advantage of that after the workshop. For those interested I can give you the coordinates of a university based travel agency that can make all necessary arrangements.
Incidentally, guest house rooms are double rooms. Those of you who want to bring their companions (I hope that is politically correct), are most welcome to do so. If there is enough presence, we will organize extra tours for them.

Finances: As promised, we will reimburse you for tourist class travel from Europe. If at all possible, I would like to have Xerox copies of your passport page (the one with your picture) as well as a copy of your ticket with the price stamped in. If I get this by June 25-26, there is a good chance that I can get you reimbursed during the workshop. Otherwise you will be paid couple of weeks after the workshop. All local expenses, i.e. lodging, food and transportation, including to and from the airport, will be covered.
The financial support is coming from the Institute of Mathematics affiliated to our department whose current director is Prof. M. Cohen, and will be supplemented if needed by my own research money.
There is no registration fee for invited participants. Other participants may be required to pay their expenses.

Web page: Andrea Gombani is mantaining the present website. Please send him any material that you feel may be of interest to participants of the workshop. Please, check also that the informations and links concerning you are correct!

Page mantained by Andrea Gombani. Last update July 2nd, 2004