In this page we give a brief summary of the activities of the center since its foundation in 1994. A more exhaustive account (in spanish) can be found here Memoria del Centro de Ciencias de Benasque.

Origin

In 1994, the Benasque Center for Physics was created as the result of the effort undertaken by the Spanish physicists Pedro Pascual (Univ. Barcelona, Director), Manuel Asorey (Univ. Zaragoza, coordinator) and José Ignacio Latorre (Univ. Barcelona, coordinator) and the major of Benasque, Mr. José Marión, to create an advanced summer institute where researchers could carry their works in a nice location in the heart of the Spanish Pyrenees. The Center was designated in close but modest analogy to the Aspen Center for Physics, which remains one of the leading centers to attract high quality scientist and trigger collaborations among them.

In contrast to big conferences and workshops, the Center is organized as a place to work. Participants are offered a desk and a computer account. A maximum of two talks per day are scheduled, leaving plenty of time for discussions and individual work. The Center is physically laid out in the former elementary school of the village of the village of Benasque. Classrooms provide desk space, the gymnasium is turned into a computer room and talks are held at the mensa. A secretariat and a larger conference room is located in the Casa de la Cultura, a building next to the school.

Status

In order to improve and expand the activities of the Benasque Center of Physics, a new institution, with the name Fundación Centro de Ciencias de Benasque (FCCB), was created on July 15, 1999. The act of creation is contained in the public document number 253 in the presence of the Notary of the College of Zaragoza Mr. Javier Santos Lloro. The new Institution patrons are the City Council of Benasque, the Diputación General de Aragón, the Diputación Provincial de Huesca and the University of Zaragoza. It is inscribed as a non profit Institution in the Boletín Oficial de Aragón of February 16, 2001. The FCCB fiscal identification is CIF G.222117905.

In the first meeting of the board (March 19, 2002), the major of Benasque was appointed President and Prof. Pedro Pascual director and manager.

Sessions

Ordinary Meetings

• 1995, Quantum Chromodynamics and Effective Lagrangians Recent Developments in Quantum Field Theory E. de Rafael, L. Álvarez-Gaumé
• 1996, Recent Progress in S-duality Electroweak Theory L. Álvarez-Gaumé, J. Bernabéu
• 1997, Quantum Field Theory Statistical Mechanics A. González-Arroyo, F. Guinea
• 1998, Progress in Quantum Computing, Cryptography and Communication Progress in Quantum Optics and Atomic Physics A. Ekert, I. Cirac
• 1999, Quantum Gases and Quantum Liquids M. Lewestein, Y. Castin
• 2000, Quantum Information Processing: Theory Quantum Information Processing: Experiments A. Ekert, I. Cirac
• 2001, Physics in the Pyrinees: Strings, Branes and Field Theory I. Klebanov, D. Z. Freedman
• 2002, Physics of ULtracold Dilute Atomic Gases A. J. Leggett, F. Sols
• 2002, Pushing the limits of QCD M. J. Savage, H. Hammer
• 2003, Quantum Information A. Ekert, I. Cirac
• 2003, String Theory D. Z. Freedman, A. Strominger
• 2003, Regulatory and Functional RNAs: Computational, Genomic and Structural Approaches E. Rivas, E. Westhof
• 2003, From Pattern Formation to Granular Physics and Soft Condensed Matter I. Aronson, L. Kramer
• 2004, Terrestrial and Cosmic Neutrinos, Leptogenesis and Cosmology J. Bernabéu, D. L. Wark
• 2004, Matching Light Quarks to Hadrons M. Golterman, S. Peris
• 2004, Time-dependent Density-Functional Theory: Prospects and Applications A. Rubio, E. K. U. Gross, M. L. A. Marqués, F. Nogueira
• 2005, Quantum Information I. Cirac , A. Ekert
• 2005, Quantum information and decoherence in condensed matter F. Guinea, F. Sols
• 2005, String Theory D. Z. Freedman, G. Gibbons, A. Strominger
• 2005, Biological Membranes: Current Challenges F. MacKintosh, A. Travesset
• 2005, Partial Differential Equations, Optimal Design and Numerics G. Buttazzo, E. Zuazua

Workshops

• 2000, Fermions, Disorder and Extended Objects on the Lattice V. Azcoiti, D. Espriu, V. Giménez, P. Hernández
• 2000, Advanced Quantum Chromodynamics S. Peris, V. Vento
• 2001, Renormalization J. I. Latorre, T. Morris
• 2004, Interplay of Magnetism and Structure in Functional Materials A. Planes, L. Mañosa, A. Saxena
• 2005, XXXIII International Meeting on Fundamental Physics D. Espriu, E. Fernández, R. Graciani, E. Grauges, M. Martínez
• 2005, Neural Growth, Differentiation and Survival: Therapeutic Perspectives in Neurological Diseases Sociedad Española de NeuroCiencia, F. Artigas

Extraordinary Meetings

• 2004, Las Fronteras de la Física
• 2004, Percepción Social de la Ciencia
• 2005, Las Fronteras de la Biología Molecular
• 2005, IV Taller de Altas Energías

Participants

The total number of participants attending the sixteen ordinary meetings held up to the end of the year 2005 is of 1329 coming from 44 countries. The detailed distribution of participants depending on the home institution country is:

• Argentina5
• Australia8
• Austria39
• Belgium8
• Brazil6
• Cameroun1
• Canada29
• Chile4
• Colombia3
• Czechoslovakia2
• Denmark10
• Finland9
• France92
• Germany135
• Ghana1
• Guadalupe1
• Holland31
• Hungary3
• India2
• Iran1
• Ireland2
• Israel34
• Italy83
• Japan11
• Mexico2
• Nigeria1
• Norway2
• New Zealand2
• Poland13
• Portugal8
• Rumania4
• Russia12
• Singapore4
• Slovakia1
• South Korea3
• Spain309
• Sweden14
• Switzerland44
• Taiwan1
• Tunisia1
• United Kingdom113
• USA273
• Uzbekistan1

The total number of participants attending the six workshops held up to the end of the year 2005 is of 279 coming from 21 countries. The detailed distribution of participants depending on the home institution country is:

• Argentina3
• Austria2
• Belgium1
• Canada1
• Denmark3
• Finland3
• France13
• Germany7
• Holland2
• Italy26
• Japan4
• Mexico1
• Portugal2
• Russia3
• Spain166
• Sweden2
• Switzerland6
• Ukraine2
• United Kingdom7
• USA22

The total number of participants attending the four extraordinary meeting held up to the end of the year 2005 is of 313 coming mainly from Spain.

Financial support

Financing the Center and the FCCB has been a major issue. At the beginning the institution was basically financed by IBERDROLA S.A. and the City Council of Benasque.

At present we have the following some long term contracts:

• With the University of de Barcelona, signed on April 3, 2002, with a financing of 9.000 € each year during the triennium 2002-2004. It has been extended on September 30, 2004 with the same quantity for the triennium 2005-2007.
• With the City Council of Benasque, signed on June 24, 2002, with a financing of 30.000 € year for the quinquenium 2003-2007.
• With the Fundación Banco de Bilbao, Vizcaya, Argentaria (BBVA), signed on September 9, 2002, with a financing of 42.000 € each year for the triennium 2003-2005.

The total financial help un to the end of 2005 is:

• IBERDROLA S.A.247 216,43 €
• City Council of Benasque119 759,34
• Fundación BBVA126 000,00
• Univ. Barcelona75 269,23
• European Science Foundation50 895,28
• CSIC39 000,00
• NHGRI /NSF37 155,56
• Diputación General de Aragón37 519,25
• Univ. Zaragoza19 760,24
• Quiprocone18 962,00
• European Foun. Acamedy of Sciences of Hungary17 410,00
• Univ. País Vasco9 000,00
• Meeting of Mathematicians 20058 986,81
• Univ. Autónoma Madrid.8 186,00
• Generalidad de Cataluña4 207,08
• NATO2 435,67
• Univ. Valencia2 400,00
• Bank interests2 078,74
• Univ. Complutense de Madrid1 500,00
• RNA Society1 300,39
• Oxford Univ. Press1 284,88
• City Council of Barcelona1 250,00
• Univ. de Bayreuth1 000,00
• IFIC (Univ. Valencia CSIC)960,00
• Total833 536,90 €

The City Council of Benasque has furthermore contributed each year with some infrastructures expenses. Along the first four years, Silicon Graphics lend to the Center, each year, 10 top model Work Stations, needed for guaranteeing an excellent level of computation and communication facilities. The University of Zaragoza has also contributed with some additional material during the first four years which can be evaluated by 3000 € each year. The accounting of the first four years has been carried by the Foundation Bosch i Gimpera from the University of Barcelona, free of charge.

Expenses

The expenses for each year managed directly by the FCCB have been:

• 199543 272,53 €
• 199632 740,07
• 199732 350,39
• 199842 958,46
• 199938 792,61
• 200039 554,65
• 200137 386,40
• 200276 399,96
• 2003155 270,13
• 2004100 932,34
• 2005130 641,03
• Total730 298,57 €

Up to the end of 2005 the expenses corresponding to different concepts is given in the following table. In the last column it is given the % of the expenses for each concept:

Total	730 298,57 €
Allowances for participants	355 718,13 €	48,71 %
Coordinators	71 916,38	9,85
Organizers	50 409,40	6,90
Financing of two workshops	12 020,24	1,65
Salaries of secretaries	51 335,00	7,03
Expenses of secretariat	5 997,60	0,82
Salaries of computer manager	23 762,31	3,25
Expenses of computer center	31 767,24	5,30
Telephone expenses	15 666,38	2,15
Buses for participants	27 612,19	3,78
Travels of organizers	6 692,65	0,92
Furniture	18 009,46	2,47
Other material	18 182,09	2,49
Management	7 291,13	1,00
Other expenses	31 887,52	4,37
Imposts	1 956,06	0,27
Bank expenses	74,79	0,01