The Optimization Days are an annual conference organized alternately by the GERAD (Groupe d'études et de recherche en analyse des décisions / Group for Research in Decision Analysis) and the C.R.T. (Centre for Research on Transportation).

The aim of the meeting is to allow researchers interested in optimization methods and their applications to meet and thus promote interaction and collaboration between research groups from around the world. Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to:

• Mathematical programming; heuristics; optimal control theory; numerical methods of optimization; statistical methods; applications to engineering, transportation, economics, management sciences, urban and environmental problems, resource management, biology, telecommunications networks; robotics; expert systems; energy modelling, etc.

The languages of the conference will be English and French. In 2003, Optimization Days will be held at HEC Montréal, 3000, chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montreal, near the Université de Montréal campus.

Here is a list of the invited plenary speakers:

• Ioannis Karatzas, Columbia University, New York, U.S.A.
  Some Stochastic Optimization Problems in Mathematical Finance
• Bruce Reed, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
  Integral and Fractional Total Colouring
• Tamás Terlaky, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
  Quadratically Convergent Predictor-Corrector Interior Point Algorithms Based on Self-Regular Proximities
• Paolo Toth, University of Bologna, Italy
  Models and Algorithms for Staff Scheduling Problems

Professor Rainer E. Burkard will unfortunately not be able to give the announced plenary talk. Nevertheless, we want to thank him warmly for having accepted our invitation.

Several professors have also accepted to give tutorials. Here are some of the tutorials:

• David Avis, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
  Linear Programming Relaxations for Max-Cut
• Gerd Finke, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France
  Scheduling: Classical Concepts and Extensions
• Pierre Hansen, HEC Montréal, Montreal, Canada
  Standard and Non-standard Uses of Variable Neighborhood Search
• David Pooley, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
  Option Pricing with PDEs: Moving Beyond the Basics
• Pascal Van Hentenryck, Brown University, Providence, USA
  Constraint Programming

The preliminary program should be available in early April 2003. The presentations will be 25 minute long, including the question period.

All participants will be invited to submit their contribution to a refereed special issue of Computers & Operations Research devoted to applications of combinatorial optimization. Details will be available in May during the conference.

Take note that the Optimization Days will be followed by the CP-AI-OR 2003 Workshop (Fifth International Workshop on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems), which will be held on May 8 to 10, 2003, at the Crowne Plaza Montreal Centre Hotel.