The Seventh Chilean Workshop on Numerical Analysis of Partial Differential Equations, WONAPDE 2024, organised by researchers from the Center for Research in Mathematical Engineering, CI²Ma, of the Universidad de Concepción, UdeC, and academics from this university, as well as from the U. del Bío-Bío (UBB) and the U. Católica de la Santísima Concepción (UCSC), was successfully held last January.  

In this regard, the director of CI²Ma, Dr. Rodolfo Araya Durán, stressed that "this conference is undoubtedly one of the most important in the area of numerical analysis of partial differential equations. This version was as successful or more successful than previous ones, as reflected in the quantity and quality of the academic papers presented.    

"On the other hand", he added, "it is worth highlighting the great work of the center's staff, which was reflected in the practical development of the event. The tireless and impeccable work of Dr. Manuel Solano is also worthy of note and was undoubtedly essential to the success of the congress".   

As has become a tradition in Concepción since 2004, this international meeting brought together the world's leading specialists in the field of Numerical Analysis of Partial Differential Equations (NDA of PDEs), an area of applied mathematics in which Concepción is a global reference thanks to the work carried out by this group of researchers, who are also members of the Centre for Mathematical Modelling (CMM) at the University of Chile. According to the opinions of the international community, this event has become the most important in its discipline.   

Ten were the plenary speakers at the meeting, which also included 19 parallel sessions of talks on various physical problems and phenomena that come from different areas of knowledge and can be addressed through various mathematical modelling techniques, bringing together more than 200 participants, mostly from Germany, Canada, Chile, Spain, USA, France and Italy, as well as countries as diverse as Saudi Arabia, Brazil, China, Sweden and Panama, among others.   

The opening ceremony was led by the director of Research and Artistic Creation of the UdeC, Dr. Ronald Mennickent Cid, who pointed out that "if we take a look at history, we will realize that much of the progress of our civilization rests on the advancement of mathematical knowledge. Similarly, the great challenges we face as humanity are likely to find answers in mathematical numerical solution algorithms".    

"The knowledge we can gain", he added, "from the study of large databases in oceanography, climate, astronomy and health sciences, to cite a few examples, will be facilitated by the tools provided by mathematics, including the sophisticated system of partial differential equations.   

On behalf of the WONAPDE 2024 organizing committee, Dr Raimund Bürger pointed out that, although during the COVID-19 pandemic, meetings of this kind were no longer possible and the number of telematic events was greatly increased, they were constantly consulted by colleagues from all over the world about when the next edition would take place. "For this reason, it is especially pleasing to have been able to hold this edition of WONAPDE with the record attendance of the entire series of meetings, 220 attendees from 25 different countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania", he said.   

"We thank all the institutions and projects that made this event possible," he added. "These projects," emphasized the UdeC academic, "are located in our three universities and it is well known that their researchers and students collaborate in different joint initiatives".    

In this sense, the organizing committee of WONAPDE is completed with Dr. Gabriel N. Gatica (UdeC) Dr. Manuel Solano Palma (UdeC, president of the committee), Dr. Ricardo Oyarzúa Vargas (UBB) and Dr. Jessika Camaño Valenzuela (UCSC), who emphasized that "as in previous WONAPDEs, we have very good level talks and different instances to be able to share".     

"WONAPDE also stands out", she added, "for being a congress with a good number of participants in the sense that it is not difficult for everyone to interact with each other, thus generating a very pleasant and welcoming atmosphere".  

WONAPDE 2024 was sponsored by UdeC, UBB, UCSC, CI²MA, CMM (FB 210005), the Computational Mathematics for Desalination Processes Group Project 'DSALT' (ACT210087) and the Group Project (ACT210030).