Dear Colleague,

This is the second announcement of the
8^th WORKSHOP ON NUMERICAL MODELING OF MANTLE CONVECTION AND LITHOSPHERIC DYNAMICS
to be held in the castle of Hruba Skala (CZECH REPUBLIC)
SEPTEMBER 13-18, 2003
We are pleased to invite you to the 8th meeting of a series of European workshops on numerical modeling of mantle dynamics. After the meetings on Vlieland (The Netherlands, 1995), in Naurod (Germany, 1997) and in Aussois (France, 2001), the workshop is for the first time organized in the Czech Republic.

A goal of the meeting is to bring together scientists who are focussed on modeling lithosphere and mantle dynamics, along with young scientists just entering the field. The program will include a mixture of general scientific discussions and discussions of technical issues related to numerical modeling. Specialists from other fields related to geodynamics, such as mineral physics, seismology and geochemistry, are cordially welcome.

Each day there will be two or three invited oral presentations (a preliminary list of invited speakers is given below). All other contributions will be Presented in poster sessions, which will begin with a series of very brief overviews from contributors within each session. A significant amount of the time will be devoted to informal discussions which develop from the invited presentations and the posters. The location, timing and makeup of the posters will be designed to optimize discussions within small groups.

The workshop will take place in the Castle of Hruba Skala 100 km northeast of Prague (for more information see http://geo.mff.cuni.cz/workshop). The workshop starts on Saturday (September 13) with a welcome party (at around 7 PM). Transportation from Prague to the conference site will be arranged (departure from the downtown at 4 PM, departure from the airport at 4.30 PM). Invited lectures and poster sessions begin on Sunday morning (September 14) and continue until Wednesday evening (September 17). Transportation from the conference site to Prague will be arranged on Thursday morning (September 18). Arrival to the Prague airport is expected at around 11 AM. The conference site can also be reached by train and by car.

The conference fee covers registration, transportation from Prague to the conference site, full board and lodging. A limited number of grants will be available for PhD students and postdocs. PARTICIPATION WILL BE LIMITED TO 80 PEOPLE.

The on-line application, registration and information about the fees can be found at

http://geo.mff.cuni.cz/workshop.
Please note that the

DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION is MAY 31, 2003.
DEADLINE FOR PAYMENT is JUNE 30, 2003.
DEADLINE FOR FINAL ABSTRACTS is AUGUST 31, 2003.
Looking forward to seeing you in Hruba Skala,

Ondrej Cadek, Charles University, Prague, CZ
Ales Spicak, Geophysical Institute, Prague, CZ
Harro Schmeling, J.W. Goethe-Universitaet, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Yanick Ricard, ENS, Lyon, France
Chris Kincaid, University of Rhode Island, USA