George Green Medal 2021

The George Green Medal was established by the University of Mississippi at Oxford, Mississippi, USA, and the Wessex Institute and is supported by Elsevier. It is in honour of the man who single-handedly set up the basis for the modern Boundary Element Method, among other notable achievements.

The Medal is awarded to those scientists who have carried out original work with practical applications in the field of Boundary Elements and other Mesh Reduction Methods, continuing in this manner to further develop the pioneering ideas of George Green. They are also persons of the highest integrity who, by sharing their knowledge, have helped to establish research groups all around the world. The Medal is given once a year and is presented during the BEM/MRM Conference.

Online – 16th June 2021, 3 pm (BST)

The George Green Medal 2021 will be presented on the occasion of the 44th International Conference on Boundary Elements and other Mesh Reduction Methods (BEM/MRM 44). The ceremony will take place during a special session and will be followed by a keynote address from the medal recipient.

---

Register free-of-charge to attend the Presentation Ceremony 

Please visit our BEM/MRM 44 conference web page to register to attend this free-of-charge Presentation Ceremony, which will be held via Zoom: BEM/MRM 44 - George Green Medal 2021 Presentation Ceremony

---

Professor Dragan Poljak

The recipient of the 2021 Medal will be Professor Dragan Poljak, University of Split, Croatia.

Prof. Dragan Poljak has made an outstanding contribution in applying BEM to electromagnetics, with a focus on bioelectromagnetics. Electromagnetics is a field that found the early application of Green’s function and boundary methods. George Green’s original paper was on electricity and magnetism. Poljak has dedicated decades of research to developing computational algorithms and applying them to cutting edge computational electromagnetics, in particular problems pertaining to electromagnetic compatibility, bioelectromagnetics and magnetohydrodynamics, through his several books and over 150 journal articles. He is also one of the most prominent promoters of the BEM through the conferences he has organized and through professional society services.

His research interests include frequency and time domain deterministic and stochastic computational methods in electromagnetics, particularly in the numerical modelling of wire antenna structures. He has developed an efficient variant of the Galerkin Bubnov Indirect Boundary Element method (GB-IBEM), computational electromagnetic compatibility, magnetohydrodynamics and numerical modelling applied to bioelectromagnetics and biomedical applications. To date, Professor Poljak has published more than 160 journal and 250 conference papers in the area of computational electromagnetics.

Professor Poljak is a Senior Member of IEEE, a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal for Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements (EABE) (Elsevier), member of the Editorial Board of International Journal of Computational Methods and Experimental Measurements (WIT Press). He is one of the Editors-in-Chief of the International Journal for Engineering Modelling. He was Lead Guest Editor of EABE (twice), International Journal for Antennas and Propagation (IJAP) and Journal of Communications, Software and Systems. He is Co-chairman of many International WIT Conferences, Co-chairman of the Environmental electromagnetic Compatibility Symposium (within the SoftCOM conference) and Co-chair of Engineering Track (within the SpliTECH conference), as well as a member of International Committees of a number of conferences. He is also the Editor of the WIT Press Series Advances in Electrical Engineering and Electromagnetics. In August 1999 he received Invited Young Scientist Award at General Assembly of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI), URSI GA 99 in Toronto, Canada.

In May 2004 he received the prize for science from the University of Split, FESB. In June 2004, Professor Poljak was awarded the National Prize for Science in Croatia. In June 2008 he received Slobodna Dalmacija Prize for science. In 2013 he was awarded the Nikola Tesla Prize for achievements in Technical Sciences. In 2011 Professor Poljak became a member of the WIT Board of Directors. From 2011 to 2015 he was the Vice-Dean for research at the Faculty of electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and naval architecture at the University of Split. In April 2013 Professor Poljak became a member of the Board of the Croatian Science Foundation. In the period from April 2013 to April 2017, he was a member of the Board of National Technical Sciences Council. From 2003 to 2007 he was Chairman of the Technical Committee for Electromagnetic Field in Human Environment and to date, he is still a member of the Committee within the Croatian Department for Standards. From September 2011 he is a member of the Croatian Accreditation Council within the Croatian Accreditation Agency. In January 2016 Professor Poljak was appointed Co-chair of the Working Group 2 (Numerical Artifacts) within SC6 IEEE International Commission for Electromagnetic Safety (ICES). He received the Award for Science of Croatian IEEE Section in November 2016 and the Annual Award for science from the University of Split in January 2017 and January 2020. He was the recipient of the annual Technical Achievement Award of the IEEE EMC Society (New Orleans, July 2019) for computational models in electromagnetic dosimetry.

He was a principal investigator on a number of national projects and participated in bilateral and multilateral projects.

Professor Poljak was the leader of the Croatian team within ITER Physics Work Package – Code Development for Integrated Modelling (2014-2020), EUROFusion; EURATOM – European Fusion Development Agreement, International, He was a researcher at project MAST- Medium and Small Size Tokamak, EUROfusion (2014-2020). He is active in a few Working Groups of IEEE: International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety (ICES), and Tech. Comm. 95 SC6 EMF Dosimetry Modeling.

He is also a member of the Croatian Centre for Excellence in Technical Sciences; Centre of Research Excellence for Advanced Cooperative Systems (ACROSS) led by the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Engineering and Computing.

Professor Poljak has a long-term collaboration with many European academic institutions such as Wessex Institute of Technology (WIT), Southampton, UK, Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France, University of Wales, UK, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Ilmenau, Germany, Ecole Polytechnique Fédéral de Laussane, Switzerland, Otto-von-Guericke Universität, Magdeburg, Germany Mälardalen University, Vesteras, Sweeden, Sapenza University of Rome, University of Edinburgh, UK and many others. In all these institutions, as a visiting professor, he gave many seminars and short courses for researchers, undergraduate and postgraduate students. He also participated in PhD defences as a member of Examining Boards in many academic institutions.

Keynote Presentation

"Integral Equation Methods in Computational Electromagnetics (CEM)"

Dragan Poljak
University of Split, FESB
Split, Croatia

Abstract

The lecture will start with some general aspects of computational electromagnetics (CEM) and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). Some well-established analytical and numerical methods, with particular emphasis on Boundary Element Methods (BEM), will be outlined.

What follows is a crash-course on the theory of thin wire antennas and presentation of the related numerical solution methods for various integral equations in both frequency and time domain based on the originally developed Galerkin-Bubnov Indirect Boundary Element Method (GB-IBEM). Computational examples include dipoles, Yagi-Uda arrays and logarithmic-periodic dipole antennas (LPDA). In particular, some applications pertaining to air traffic control and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) will be presented.

Furthermore, full-wave (antenna) models for various thin wire configurations of interest in electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), from rather simple to realistic complex geometries, will be outlined. This will be followed by analyzes of overhead/buried transmission lines, PLC (Power Line Communications) systems, lightning channel and realistic grounding systems (with particular emphasis on wind turbines).

Then, special attention will be focused on the human body exposed to non-ionizing radiation. Low frequency (LF), high frequency (HF) and transient exposures related to possible adverse health effects will be discussed addressing electromagnetic interference (EMI) sources such as power lines, transformer substations and base stations antennas for 2G/3G/4G and 5G systems. Realistic models for electromagnetic-thermal dosimetry based on the hybrid finite element/boundary element approach will be described, as well. Also, some biomedical application of electromagnetic fields, with particular emphasis on transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), transcranial electric stimulation (TES) and nerve fibre stimulation, will be discussed.

Furthermore, some stochastic analysis methods combined with BEM (featuring the use of stochastic collocation (SC) technique) applied to the area of GPR, grounding electrodes, human exposure to electromagnetic fields and biomedical application of electromagnetic fields will be presented.

The presentation will end up with some topics in magnetohydrodynamics pertaining to the modelling of plasma physics phenomena important in the applications in thermonuclear fusion.

Previous Laureates

Details of the previous George Green Medal presentations can be found in the conference reports listed below:

• 2020 Ching-Shyang Chen, USA - BEM/MRM 43 Conference Report
  
  
• 2019 Zhenhan Yao, China - BEM/MRM 42 Conference Report
  
  
• 2018 Ney Dumont, Brazil - BEM/MRM 41 Conference Report
  
  
• 2017 Antonio Tadeu, Portugal - BEM/MRM 40 Conference Report
  
  
• 2017 Henry Power, UK - BEM/MRM 40 Conference Report
  
  
• 2016 Alex Cheng, USA - BEM/MRM 39 Conference Report
  
  
• 2015 Edward Kansa, USA- BEM/MRM 38 Conference Report
  
  
• 2014 Carlos A Brebbia, UK - BEM/MRM 37 Conference Report

George Green (1793-1841)

George Green was a self-taught genius who mysteriously delivered one of the most influential mathematics and physics works of all time. He educated himself in mathematics and self-published the work “An Essay on the Application of Mathematical Analysis to the Theories of Electricity and Magnetism”. In his very first article, he derived the Green’s first, second and third identities, forged the concept of Green’s function, and solved the problem of the electrical potential created by a single charge placed inside a spherical metal shell. The ideas of Green’s function forever changed the landscape of science, as many physics and mathematics problems have been solved using this technique. As Green died early, and his work was discovered only posthumously, it remains a mystery today how Green could produce such a masterpiece without the guidance of a great teacher or school and, in fact, without a formal education. Only recently, due to the advent of powerful computers, has it been possible to take full advantage of Green’s pioneering developments.

 

For further information about the George Green Medal please contact:

George Green Medal
Wessex Institute
Ashurst Lodge, Ashurst
Southampton
SO40 7AA, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 238 029 3223

Email: wit@wessex.ac.uk

Webinar on Modelling and Simulating Present and Future Railways

24th March 2021, 9 am to 11 am (GMT)

Online

Overview

The webinar is intended to present innovative approaches and techniques dedicated to modelling and simulating key issues reported within several strategic areas of present and future railway systems. Four different countries and four distinctive topics have been selected intentionally for this first webinar on such matters.

Webinar Presentations

• "Long train dynamic simulation by means of a new in-house code"
  M. Magelli, Politecnico Di Torino, Italy
  
  
• "New approach for missing consumption reconstruction and validation of energy-meters data"
  L. M. Alonso, JUNIA, France
  
  
• “Optimising acceleration and braking performance profiles of railway vehicles for the robust operation of ultra-high frequency timetables”
  R. Takagi, Kogakuin University, Japan
  
  
• "Impact of faster freight trains on railway capacity and operational quality"
  J. Geischberger, German Aerospace Center, Germany

For details of future Webinars please visit:

WIT Winter Webinars

Prigogine Award 2021

The Prigogine Medal Ceremony for the presentation of the 2020 and 2021 awards were due to take place during the Air Pollution 2021 conference. However, the ceremonies were postponed to 2022 due to COVID-19.

The Prigogine Award was established by the University of Siena and the Wessex Institute of Technology in 2004 to honour the memory of Professor Ilya Prigogine, Nobel Prize Winner for Chemistry.

Ilya Prigogine

Ilya Prigogine was born in Moscow in 1917 and obtained his undergraduate and graduate education in chemistry at the Free University in Brussels. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to non-equilibrium thermodynamics, particularly the theory of dissipative structures. The main theme of his scientific work was the role of time in the physical sciences and biology. He contributed significantly to the understanding of irreversible processes, particularly in systems far from equilibrium. The results of his work have had profound consequences for understanding biological and ecological systems.

Prigogine’s ideas established the basis for ecological systems research. The Prigogine Medal to honour his memory is awarded annually to a leading scientist in the field of ecological systems. All recipients have been deeply influenced by the work of Prigogine.

Previous Prigogine Laureates:

2004 Sven Jorgensen, Denmark
2005 Enzo Tiezzi, Italy
2006 Bernard Patten, USA
2007 Robert Ulanowicz, USA
2008 Ioannis Antoniou, Greece
2009 Emilio del Giudice, Italy
2010 Felix Müller, Germany
2011 Larissa Brizhik, Ukraine
2012 Gerald Pollack, USA
2013 Vladimir Voeikov, Russia
2014 Mae-wan Ho, UK
2015 Bai-Lian Larry Li, USA
2016 Brian Fath, USA
2017 João Carlos Marques, Portugal
2018 Stuart Kauffman, USA
2019 Luc Montagnier, Switzerland
2020 Diederik Aerts, Belgium (to be awarded at the 2021 ceremony)

The 2021 Medal will be awarded to Simone Bastianoni, University of Siena, Italy.

---

Simone Bastianoni

After completing classical high school studies, Simone Bastianoni received his master degree in Electronic Engineering at the University of Padova (1990) and then entered the PhD program in Chemical Sciences at the University of Perugia, Italy. During this period, he was visiting scholar at the University of Florida (in 1993) under the supervision of prof. H.T. Odum. He wrote a dissertation on the Development of Novel Thermodynamic Indicators for the Investigation of Ecological Systems under the supervision of Prof. Enzo Tiezzi. He obtained his PhD degree in 1995.

After a career at the University of Siena working in Prof. Tiezzi’s group (with a period as visiting scientist at the Royal Danish School of Pharmacy with S.E. Jørgensen, in 1999), Prof. Bastianoni has been Co-director of the Ecodynamics Group, together with Prof. Nadia Marchettini, since Prof. Tiezzi’s death in 2010. This transdisciplinary group includes chemists, economists, biologists, environmental scientists, architects and engineers (www.ecodynamicsgroup.unisi.it). He is currently full professor of Environmental Chemistry, Chair of the PhD School in Environmental, Geological and Polar Sciences and Provost for Sustainability at the University of Siena.

Prof. Bastianoni has 30 years of experience in investigating sustainability indicators, adopting a holistic view, common to thermodynamics and ecology, including the evaluation of eMergy, eXergy, Ecological Footprint, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and greenhouse gases balance. He has identified the relationship between emergy and exergy as a key indicator for understanding the degree of organization of ecosystems and then enlarged this understanding to an input-state-output view of both ecosystems and human ones with applications to sustainability. He has also developed, with other colleagues at the University of Siena. a method for a fast estimation of the greenhouse gases emissions attributed according to a consumer responsibility and a 3D view of the Ecological Footprint that discriminates flows and stocks.

Prof. Bastianoni is a past President of the Emergy Society, Member of the Standard Committee of the Global Footprint Network and Member of the Scientific Board of the International Society of Ecological Modelling. After directing the project that has led the province of Siena to be the first territory of the world to be certified for its greenhouse gases balance, he is now President of the Siena Alliance for Carbon Neutrality (www.carbonneutralsiena.it).

He has published more than 200 papers, with an H-index of 46 (Google Scholar). He is also co-author of several monographs, including:

• Jørgensen S.E., Fath B.D., Nielsen S.N., Pulselli F.M., Fiscus D.A., Bastianoni S., 2015. Flourishing within limits to growth - Following nature’s way, Routledge, Padstow, UK, 288 pp.
• Pulselli F.M., Bastianoni S., Marchettini N., Tiezzi E., 2008. The road to sustainability, WIT Press, Southampton, UK; 197 pp.

In 2004 he received the first Prigogine Junior Medal.

---

Special Prigogine Lecture
on

A Sustainability Viewpoint for a Post Covid-19 Pandemic Society

to be delivered by Professor Simone Bastianoni
at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain,
on Wednesday 1st September 2021

A few years ago we published a paper in which we showed a “functional” way of representing sustainability. In reality, it shows the cause-effect relationships between the environmental, social and economic spheres. The environment forms the basis of the system on which man as a species and like all other species is founded and lives. Human society is the core of our interest, and for which we aim at sustainability: nature without humans would go on quite well. The economy represents the "tip of the iceberg" of human society, its productive expression, its "useful output", the expression of how social organization uses resources to make money. At a time when the environmental and social aspects have become equally urgent and with very rapid and equal response times in the three spheres, it is even more important to understand the mechanisms that can lead us out of contradictions and into a more livable world.

The covid-19 pandemic has shown the cause-effect dynamics: a wrong use by humans of the environment (contact with wild animals that should have been be left alone) has triggered a real environmental crisis, i.e. spillover effect. The environmental crisis quickly became a social crisis because the pandemic spread everywhere and caused the need for lockdowns: being "social" suddenly has become a problem. This caused the economic crisis: without a functioning society, production becomes much more difficult. Our interpretation of sustainability in terms of cause-effect relationships already had this type of prediction.

The environment is also recognized as the most important risk factor for the economy also by the World Economic Forum 2020, according to which climatic change, overuse of resources, loss of biodiversity, viruses or new threats to agricultural production are most likely to produce economic crises. Therefore policies that focus only on the economic side, thinking or hoping that the feedback on societies and on the environment will be positive, will turn out to be a hoax. It was probably a model that could fit in an “empty world”, in which the environment could be considered abundant and substantially unchangeable by human actions, not in a 7 billion inhabitants Anthropocene.

The answer is in a model that does not involve a trade-off between good economic performance, good social cohesion and a simply "clean" environment. It envisages managing at the same time the environmental, social and economic aspects as a whole, with a legislative system that recognizes this whole and regulates human actions both towards the economy and towards the environment, to be recognized as an integral part of the system of support of humankind.

In this model there is no room for feedback that is harmful: what comes "back" from the economy and society must be additional nourishment for the environment, reinforcement, not "pollution". The example of plastic in seas and oceans in this sense is striking and despite the fact that scientists have reported this phenomenon for decades, today those who eat fish also eat plastic. Like those who eat meat and vegetables very often also eat antibiotics and pesticides, respectively.

In exiting the COVID emergency we must keep this dynamic in mind. If the solution to get out of the obvious economic crisis is simply to "increase consumption" we will face even greater disasters. Increasing consumption will imply an escalation in environmental stress and therefore a further loss in the quality of life of people, in addition to an intensification in (as already mentioned by the WEF) also economic risks due to environmental problems. The priority of governments must then be the use of the enormous financial resources, made available also by central banks, for the restructuring of the economy together with its physical and social foundations.

Starting from the observation of humanity, as a dissipative structure, is bound to consume energy and resources, our model indicates a precise path, which is also a path of great human and technological development.

---

For further information about the Prigogine Awards, please contact:

Prigogine Award
Wessex Institute
Ashurst Lodge, Ashurst
Southampton
SO40 7AA, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 238 029 3223

Email: wit@wessex.ac.uk

---

See the following Web pages for details of the recent Prigogine Awards:

• Sustainable City 2019
  
  
• Sustainable Development and Planning 2018
  
  
• Sustainable City 2017
  
  

Further details of all Prigogine Awards can be found on our dedicated page: Prigogine Award

Prigogine Award 2020 to be presented alongside the 2021 Award

The Prigogine Medal 2020 Award Ceremony was due to take place during the Air Pollution 2020 conference. However, the ceremony was postponed to 2021 due to COVID-19 and will now take along with the presentation of the 2021 Award at the University of Santiago de Compostela on Wednesday 1st September 2020, during the 29th International Conference on Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Air Pollution (Air Pollution 2021).

The Prigogine Medal was established by the University of Siena and the Wessex Institute of Technology in 2004 to honour the memory of Professor Ilya Prigogine, Nobel Prize Winner for Chemistry

Ilya Prigogine

Ilya Prigogine was born in Moscow in 1917 and obtained his undergraduate and graduate education in chemistry at the Free University in Brussels. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to non-equilibrium thermodynamics, particularly the theory of dissipative structures. The main theme of his scientific work was the role of time in the physical sciences and biology. He contributed significantly to the understanding of irreversible processes, particularly in systems far from equilibrium. The results of his work have had profound consequences for understanding biological and ecological systems.

Prigogine’s ideas established the basis for ecological systems research. The Prigogine Medal to honour his memory is awarded annually to a leading scientist in the field of ecological systems. All recipients have been deeply influenced by the work of Prigogine.

Previous Prigogine Laureates:

2004 Sven Jorgensen, Denmark
2005 Enzo Tiezzi, Italy
2006 Bernard Patten, USA
2007 Robert Ulanowicz, USA
2008 Ioannis Antoniou, Greece
2009 Emilio del Giudice, Italy
2010 Felix Müller, Germany
2011 Larissa Brizhik, Ukraine
2012 Gerald Pollack, USA
2013 Vladimir Voeikov, Russia
2014 Mae-wan Ho, UK
2015 Bai-Lian Larry Li, USA
2016 Brian Fath, USA
2017 João Carlos Marques, Portugal
2018 Stuart Kauffman, USA
2019 Luc Montagnier, Switzerland

The 2020 Medal will be awarded to Professor Diederik Aerts, Brussels Free University, Belgium.

---

Diederik Aerts

Professor Diederik Aerts graduated with an MSc in Mathematical Physics and holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics from Brussels Free University. For his doctoral research, he worked with Constantin Piron within the so-called ‘Geneva School on the Foundations of Physics’, on the ‘quantum axiomatic description of composite entities’, proving among other things the ‘impossibility of standard quantum theory to model systems of separated entities’.

For his postdoc, Professor Aerts worked at the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research, where he was also a tenured researcher, and he then became a professor at Brussels Free University (VUB). There, he was the director of the Center Leo Apostel of Interdisciplinary Studies, before becoming emeritus a year ago. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Springer Nature journal ‘Foundations of Science’ and a board member of the Worldviews group, founded by the late philosopher Leo Apostel. He is also president of the Centre for Quantum Social and Cognitive Science (IQSCS) at Leicester University (UK) and a Fellow of the College of the International Institute for Advanced Studies in Systems Research and Cybernetics (IIAS). He was the scientific and artistic coordinator of the ‘Einstein meets Magritte’ conference, at the VUB, where some of the world’s leading scientists and artists gathered to reflect on science, nature, human action and society. This was followed up by two international symposia co-organized with his collaborators and students, ‘Times of Entanglement’ at the World-Exhibition in Shanghai and ‘Worlds of Entanglement’ at the VUB.

Professor Aerts is considered to be one of the pioneers of the research domain called ‘Quantum Cognition’, where quantum structures are used to model aspects of human cognition and decision, a domain in which he is still actively engaged with his group of collaborators and PhD students. Starting from his reflection in the field of quantum cognition, Professor Aerts also formulated a new interpretation of quantum theory, called the ‘conceptuality interpretation’, where quantum entities are considered to be concepts (meaning entities) instead of objects. With his group, he is currently elaborating this challenging approach in all its possible facets and fields of inquiry, as it appears to be able to elucidate fundamental aspects of quantum theory, such as uncertainty, indistinguishability, entanglement and superposition, which have not yet found a satisfactory explanation in existing quantum interpretations.

To find out more about Professor Aerts please view his full CV here: Diederik Aerts CV

---

Special Prigogine Lecture
on

A Quantum Quest. From operational quantum axiomatics to quantum conceptuality, or how to unveil meaning in reality

to be delivered by Professor Diederik Aerts
at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain,
on Wednesday 1st September 2021

Highlights of his research are outlined leading to the formulation of a new interpretation of quantum mechanics, called the ‘conceptuality interpretation’. In this new thought-provoking interpretation quantum entities are considered to be concepts instead of objects and fundamental quantum phenomena, such as Heisenberg uncertainty, indistinguishability, entanglement and superposition, which cannot be addressed in a satisfactory way in the existing interpretations, find a very natural explanation. The interpretation also provides interesting insights as regards the possible nature of the world in which we live and evolve.

The full lecture abstract can be found here: Special Prigogine Lecture - Diederik Aerts

---

For further information about the Prigogine Awards, please contact:

Prigogine Award
Wessex Institute
Ashurst Lodge, Ashurst
Southampton
SO40 7AA, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 238 029 3223

Email: wit@wessex.ac.uk

---

See the following Web pages for details of the recent Prigogine Awards:

• Sustainable City 2019
  
  
• Sustainable Development and Planning 2018
  
  
• Sustainable City 2017
  
  

Further details of all Prigogine Awards can be found on our dedicated page: Prigogine Award