Professor Jan Wehr, Department of Mathematics, The University of Arizona

Disorder is ubiquitous in nature, its effects are pronounced and require serious consideration by theoretical physics. The resulting models and questions lead to a multitude of mathematical problems, simply stated but surprisingly difficult. We will review some of the successes of the mathematical theory of disordered systems and discuss some of the important open problems. The relevant mathematical tools are: probability, ergodic theory and spectral analysis.