The physics program started when the Centre was first established and, consequently, there was insufficient time for the careful planning that has preceded later programs at the Centre.

Nevertheless, a productive program was organized with full international participation. Researchers from USA, Germany, Israel and UK, among others, participated in the project.

We were particularly pleased that Professor Benoit Mandelbrot (IBM/Yale University, USA), a world renowned scientist who single-handedly developed the field of fractal geometry, was able to participate in the program during three separate visits to Norway. Through his work, Prof. Mandelbrot has had a profound impact in almost every field in the natural sciences and economics. His work is the very foundation of our activities at the Centre.

The physics group inaugurated the tradition of including doctorate and postdoctorate students in the group, so that they could take advantage of the strong international experts as their consultants and supervisors.

Scientifically, the project have had lasting impact in several different directions:

• A total of 19 scientific papers have been published in international journals. Another 4 is in preparation, and an additional 5 papers presented at international conferences are printed in proceedings. Additionally, we have presented our work in 15 invited talks abroad and 11 in Norway.
• Prof. Meakin have written a draft of a 650 page monograph on “Fractals, scaling and growth far from equilibrium”, which is now in press with the Cambridge University Press. Work was started on a second book, which will also be printed by the same publisher.
• A program on river modelling, which is still flourishing at the University of Oslo, was initiated.
• New programs were also started on the computer simulation of single phase and multi phase flow in porous media, using novel algorithmic modelling methods.

Furthermore, our international network became much stronger during our year at CAS.