ITMM-2015

Professor Rein Nobel

 Our trip to Tomsk has been a great success, especially due to the hospitality of all the organizers. Outside it was very cold, but nevertheless we now have a good impression of Tomsk and its surroundings. It is really an intellectual and cultural city of great importance, which we never realized before.
 We arrived on a cold Saturday morning and after a short rest at the beautiful hotel Bon Apart, we had a nice lunch with Tatiana and her husband. After lunch they gave us a sightseeing tour, and we got a glimpse of the history of the city. This was of great help for the days to come when we have explored Tomsk on our own. Especially the beautiful wooden houses have impressed us.
 On Tuesday we have seen the famous library at the university, and I presented a paper for the department. We had a nice discussion afterwards. On Wednesday Alexander defended his thesis, unfortunately in Russian, so that it was difficult for me to understand. But the dinner that evening was wonderful. As usual almost everybody spoke a few words at the table, and Maria and I liked the atmosphere very much.
 On Thursday we moved to Anzhero-Sudzhensk, where I gave my keynote talk. The organizers gave me all the time to explain my paper in detail. I have appreciated this very much. Also I am impressed by the high level of the presentations of several Ph.D. students. I think that the Tomsk-group is strong in research on queueing theory, and it would be very helpful for them to attend more conferences abroad. For that reason I hope that some of you will come to Amsterdam next August. It is a pity that not all the speakers presented their papers in English. When ITTM wants to attract more researchers from abroad in the future, I think that it would be much more attractive when all the presentations would be given in English. Fortunately, the proceedings were marvelous, it is really a beautiful book which gives a good idea of the research presented, and even much more.
With respect to the social side, we will remember Elena with her guitar, who has sung several traditional Russian songs during the conference dinner. Everybody was very relaxed and happy. A very nice evening for Maria and me.
 So, summarizing, you all have created the perfect atmosphere for us during our stay in Siberia.  We would really like to come again!

Best regards,
Rein Nobel.

Professor Michele Pagano

It was a pleasure to attend for the second year in a row the ITMM conference and enjoy once again the warm Siberian hospitality!
I would like to express my gratitude to all the people involved in the organization, in Tomsk and in "Anzherka", for their invitation and their help before, during and after the conference...

Social events in Tomsk (visit to the botanic garden and university museums) and Anzhero-Sudzhensk (excursion around the city, social dinner and visit to the artistic candle shop) were simply unforgettable.

However, such events did not overshadow the main reason of the visit - indeed the conference was very interesting, a nice combination of talks given by young researchers and longer presentations by famous specialists from different countries. Moreover, the idea of organizing another conference in parallel (with a common open ceremony) gave the opportunity of getting acquainted (at least to the Russian speaking people, who were the overwhelmingly majority of the participants in spite of their nationality) with the problems and perspectives of education in Russia in the XXI century.

And, last, but not least, special thanks to Elena Vecher, the Director of the Anzhero-Sudzhensk Branch of Kemerovo State University, for the wonderful atmosphere she was able to create during the conference and at the dinner - Russian songs were appreciated by everyone (even by non Russian-speaking people) and gave the opportunity not only to enjoy time after dinner, but also to "feel" Russian culture and traditions as well as to discuss on the relevance of bard songs on soviet society...

I hope that the tradition of the conference will continue in the warm (in spite of the external temperature) Siberian winter

See you soon,
Michele Pagano.