Dear Colleagues:


An international workshop on Semigroups, Automata, and Formal Languages,
will be held at Polo di dattico e di ricerca of Milan University in Crema,
Italy from 17th to 21st June 2002. Actually a reception is planned in Crema
on the evening of June 17th and a half day excursion on June 21st. 

All topics related to the title of the workshop are welcome, but the main
focus is on profinite methods in finite semigroup theory, group complexity
of finite semigroups, varieties of languages, theory of infinite words,
combinatorics on words, and computational aspects of finite semigroup theory.

The scientific committee of the meeting is comprised of J.Meakin, J.E.Pin,
M. Volkov and myself (A. Cherubini). 

The meeting immediately follows the joint meeting of AMS/UMI that will be
held in Pisa from 12th to 16th June.
Information on the joint meeting can be found at the webpage of UMI at the
address
http://www.dm.unipi.it/~meet2002/ 
The room reservation in Pisa is available at the same address, but, since
the deadline is over, be hurried.
A special session on semigroups, automata and formal languages is planned at
that meeting according the usual format of special sessions of meetings of
the American Mathematical Society. The main speakers in that special section
are
J.Rhodes, J.McCammond, A. de Luca, A.Restivo. 

Almost all people involved in the special session in Pisa are participating
in the Crema workshop. A preliminary list of participants is:

Almeida, Berstel, Birget, Bonzini, Choffrut, Cherubini, De Felice, De Luca,
Del Lungo, Heitsch, Kuich,  Meakin, Migliorini, Mignosi, McCammond, Pin,
Piochi,
Pirillo, Restivo, Rhodes, Ruskuc, Sabadini, Sakarovitch, Sapir, Silva,
Steinberg, Varricchio, Volkov, Weil

People interested in the Crema meeting are asked to fill in the attached
pre-registration form and send it to me as soon as possible at the
following e-mail address
aleche@mate.polimi.it
in order to enable me to arrange accommodations, because Crema is a small
town with limited accommodation available (there are just three hotels). 
All the hotels (Park, Palace, Ponte di Rialto) are all very confortable
four stars hotels and the prices (room+breakfast) are very similar, around: 
60 euros for a single room
90 euros for a double room
110 euros for a triple room.
A small upgrading is possible at the beginning of the new year.

The organizers are looking into the possibility of cheaper accommodations at
a student dormitory and in some cheaper location in the neighbourhood of
Crema.

People interested in giving a talk in Crema are also requested to send a
title and an abstract of the talk by 30th April 2002.

Very limited funds are available to support participants, so people are
kindly asked to inform the organizers whether their participation depends
on obtaining partial support from workshop funds.

Since connections between Pisa and Crema are not very good the organizers
are trying to reserve a bus for people participating in both of the events.

Crema is a small town, quite famous for its cheese. It is situated in the
middle of a triangle whose vertices are the famous art towns of Bergamo,
Pavia and Cremona. Some nice old buildings are in Crema also. Swimming,
tennis and golf courses are available in Crema.

Best regards,
Alessandra Cherubini (on behalf of the Organizing Commettee)

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PRE-REGISTRATIN FORM (Crema Workshop)

I am interested in attending Y/N

My participation depends on obtaining support from workshop funds: Y/N

I would like to give a talk Y/N

I am interested in a hotel accomodation. My preference is:

I am interested in a student house accomodation if available Y/N

I would like share a room with ________________________________

Number of accompanying people:

I am interested in an organized trip from Pisa to Crema on June 17th. Y/N

I would be interested in a half day excursion on June 21st. Y/N