European Congress of Stereology and Image Analysis

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The 10th European Congress of Stereology and Image Analysis

University of Milan
ECS10 c/o Department of Mathematics Via Saldini, 50 20133 Milano (MI) Italy
Milan, IT

June 22, 2009 – June 26, 2009

The 10th European Congress of Stereology, ECS10, was held at the University of Milano, Italy.

This is a conference of the International Society of Stereology.

ECS10, the 10th European Congress of Stereology and Image Analysis, is part of the quadrennial European Conferences of ISS (the International Society for Stereology), which are intertwined with the series of the quadrennial International Conferences on Stereology.

The aim of ECS10 has been to bring together leading scientists working on recent advances on methods in Stereology, Stochastic geometry, Spatial processes, and related Statistical methods, including Statistical Shape Analysis, Image and Signal Analysis and emerging areas of applications such as Biology and Medicine, Biotechnology , Materials, Micro- and nanostructures, etc...

The Conference attracted more than 160 participants from all over the world; including 34 countries from all five continents, Africa, North and South America, Asia, Australia, Europe (sorry, no penguins!).

The Scientific Programme included an Opening Lecture delivered by Daryl Daley, a Special Lecture, dedicated to Ewald Weibel on his 80th anniversary, by Luis Cruz-Orive, 9 Invited Lectures delivered by Arun Gokhale, Ken Kieu, Ville Kolehmainen, Krzysztof Kurzydlowski, Salvatore Lanzavecchia, Claudia Redenbach, Evgeny Spodarev, Alessandro Verri, Rick Vitale; 15 Minisymposia (around 60 presentations), 53 Contributed Talks, and 20 Posters.

The choice of the Invited Lectures had been made by an International Advisory Board in such a way that the most recent research trends were illustrated. The overall standard of the Conference was unanimously recognized at top levels (we are still receiving letters of congratulations from participants, and in particular from members of the Board of ISS), and it is impossible to highlight particular cases. But we like to mention that the Milan Conference has offered a unique opportunity for young scientists to meet many internationally recognized experts. We are sure that it has been instrumental in furthering interactions for joint research and exchange of information among groups beyond disciplinary silos. We have been witnessing intense discussions between mathematicians, statisticians, engineers, biologists, medical scientists, etc...

It may be of interest to record that all sessions, from the first to the very last day, have been highly attended, notwithstanding various attractions and opportunities of social life in Milano.

The ISS had offered six "Hans Elias" fellowships to young participants (recipients were selected by an ISS committee). At the Closing Ceremony two prizes (including a Diploma, in addition to a "concrete" prize) were offered by the ECS10 Local Committee to authors of Posters, as selected by an ECS10 Special Committee, including members of the ISS Board and of the Local Committee of ECS10.

The Social Programme had been very intense; out of five evenings, it included a very well attended Social Dinner, which seemed to be extremely appreciated by all attendants, but Dominique Jeulin, who spent all of his time jumping from one table to another for taking pictures (you will find them too in the ECS10 web site); Ewald Weibel gave a speech about the history of ISS, and its series of Conferences.

On Wednesday evening a Concert was organized, with a pianist and a violinist playing a delicious European programme, based on a musical itinerary along the Danube.

On Thursday evening the Big Event came to all participants and their accompanying persons: a visit to the Cenacolo (Last Supper) by Leonardo da Vinci; note that it is not trivial to organize such a visit for more than one hundred people, during the same evening. After that visit everybody was much nicer to each other, and participants felt how special the site of the Conference, Milan, is.

Based on the accurate illustration (by the guide) of the painting, in which laws of geometry had been so magisterially applied, the Cenacolo was unanimously declared, by an International Jury, the BEST POSTER on IMAGE ANALYSIS and STEREOLOGY at ECS10.

The Proceedings of the Conference, are available on a CD; they have been regularly registered as a publication, so that they can be further disseminated after the conference. In addition to contributions by the Invited Speakers, it contains papers related to minisymposia and contributed talks, which have gone through a standard peer review system, by international experts in the field.
Extended versions of selected contributions will appear on the official journal of the ISS, Image Analysis and Stereology.

We wish to thank here all those who, directly or indirectly, have contributed to the organization of the Conference: participants, speakers, the International Scientific Committee, and last but not the least the Board of ISS for his trust and active support.

Thanks are also due to many national and international organizations for their important auspices.
We take the opportunity to convey the wish of the Board of ISS too, that the membership of the Society is enlarged by number, by age, by geography, and of course by scientific interests, in order to keep it as vital as possible.

A gallery of pictures will soon appear.

The "flame" of the ISS Conferences has now been passed on to our Chinese colleagues, to whom we wish solidarity and success for ICS-2011.

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