The Fourth International EBASI Conference

The Fourth International EBASI Conference was held 6-10 August 2001 in Cotonou, Benin, West Africa. The focus of this conference was on the implications and relevance of current advances in pure and applied physics for emerging telecommunications technologies. The meeting was planned in conjunction with the Telecommunication Authority of Benin, the Institute for Mathematics and Physical Sciences (IMSP) of the National University of Benin, and the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP). The conference consisted of invited presentations and presentations selected from refereed submissions. The conference proceedings are to be published. The participants included physicists and applied mathematicians from the African continent, the United States, and Europe. In addition to the usual motivations for intercontinental scientific exchanges, the Conference was also designed to allow all participants the opportunity to explore possibilities for mutually beneficial transcontinental collaborations and was sponsored by a combination of funds from the ICTP, the National Science Foundation, private foundations, national laboratories, and other federal grants.