Dynamics and patterns in complex fluids

The study of complex fluids is a vigorously evolving field of condensed matter physics with a highly interdisciplinary nature. Because this area is diverse and still in its infancy, the aim of the symposium was to clarify its definition by highlighting various problems. Experimental contributions to this volume reveal intriguing dynamical phenomena in polymers, liquid crys- tals, gels, colloids, and surfactant systems. These complex fluids are then treated in terms of defects, mesoscopic ordering, patterns, nonlinear response, and random interfaces, which are all of importance in current statistical physics.