Welcome!

This 11th Conference falls in the year of the centenary celebration of the publication of an epoch-making paper in scattering theory by Gustav Mie. It will bring together scientists and engineers from around the world who are actively involved in research into light scattering and will address theoretical developments and simulations, laboratory and field experiments, measurements and applications.

The 11th Electromagnetic and Light Scattering Conference, ELS-XI, is built on the success of previous meetings held in Amsterdam, Helsinki, New York, Vigo, Halifax, Gainesville, Bremen, Salobreña, St. Petersburg and Bodrum. The main objective is to bring together scientists and engineers researching various aspects of light scattering, covering theory, measurements, and applications.

The specific topics to be covered include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • new theoretical developments and numerical simulations of light scattering by nonspherical particles and particles with complex structures
  • laboratory and field experiments in light scattering by natural and artificial particles
  • applications of light scattering in particle detection, laboratory and field particle characterization
  • single and multiple light scattering in the terrestrial atmosphere by cirrus and aerosols, including application to remote sensing
  • single and multiple light scattering in various cosmic objects, including comets, solar system and exoplanets 
  • applications of light scattering methods in biology and biomedicine, including biological hazards 
  • light scattering methods to control material properties in chemical and material science experiments and in technological processes.

The conference will be held at the University de Havilland Campus in Hatfield, just 20 miles north of London. The conference dinner and Elizabethan banquet will be held at Hatfield House (pictured above) which was previously home to Elizabeth I of England, and the conference trip will be a three hour boat trip on the river Thames, with buffet.

Gustav Mie (1868 - 1957)

2008 marks the centenary celebration of the publication of Mie's ground-breaking paper in scattering theory "Beiträge zur Optik trüber Medien, speziell kolloidaler Metallösugnen" , G. Mie, Leipzig, Ann. Phys. 25, 377-45 (1908). Arturo Quirantes has kindly set up a Mie Translation Project, with the goal of translating Mie's papers into as many major languages as possible.

The project webpage is http://www.ugr.es/local/aquiran/mie.htm .

Gustav Mie, who was working at the time at the Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald, derived a solution of Maxwell's equations for scattering from spheres. This theory has found many diverse applications including light scattering by butterfat globules in milk and radar scattering by raindrops. At the 11th Electromagnetic and Light Scattering conference, we will mark this celebration with a keynote address by Michael Mishchenko.