Dear colleague,

On the occasion of the 75th birthday of Jacques Tits we organize a conference in Gent. This conference will start on Friday, October 14 in the afternoon, and end in the early afternoon on Saturday, October 15. Each day there will be three one-hour lectures given by

Pierre-Emmanuel Caprace (Bruxelles),

Tom De Medts (Gent),

Gopal Prasad (Ann Arbor),

Bertrand Rémy (Lyon),

Jean-Pierre Serre (Paris) and

Richard Weiss (Boston).

A provisional programme, which will be updated from time to time, can be found on http://cage.rug.ac.be/~hvm/schedule.html

REGISTRATION.

There is no registration or conference fee. However, if you intend to come, please send us a short email (bmuhlher@ulb.ac.be).

The lectures will take place at the University of Gent in the building S25 of the Department for Pure Mathematics and Computer Algebra, Galglaan 2, Gent (Belgium).

CONFERENCE DINNER.

A conference dinner is planned on Friday evening. The restaurant is not confirmed yet, but as soon as it is fixed, we will put all information, including the price, on the web. You will be asked to send a short message to bmuhlher@ulb.ac.be or hvm@cage.ugent.be if you intend to participate. The deadline (probably beginning October) for this will also be on the web soon.

ACCOMMODATION

If you need accommodation in Gent, we ask you to take care of the reservation yourself. You may find the following suggestions useful. The organizers recommend in the first place Hotel Ascona, as this is close to both the station and the department, and as this hotel has got a lot of rooms.

Hotel Astoria, A. Musschestraat 39, 9000 Gent. Tel.: +32 9 222 84 13, Fax.: +32 9 222 47 87, email: info@astoria.be. Prices: Single: 65-89 EURO, Double: 72-119 EURO breakfast included. Web page: www.astoria.be

Hotel Ascona, Voskenslaan 105, 9000 Gent. Tel.: +32 9 221 27 56, Fax.: +32 9 221 47 01, email: hotel@ascona.be. Prices: Single: 64,5 EURO, double: 77 EURO, breakfast included. Web page: www.ascona.be

Hotel Ibis-Kathedraal, Limburgstraat 2, 9000 Gent. Tel.: +32 9 233 00 00, Fax.: +32 9 233 10 00, email: H0961@accor.com Prices: Single: 75 EURO, double: 75 EURO, breakfast: + 9 EURO. Web page: www.ibishotel.com

Hotel Ibis-Opera, Nederkouter, 9000 Gent. Tel.: +32 9 225 07 07, Fax.: +32 9 225 59 07, email: H1455@accor.com. Prices: Single: 69 EURO, double: 69 EURO, breakfast: + 9 EURO. Web page: www.ibishotel.com

Hotel Carlton, Kon. Astridlaan 138, 9000 Gent. Tel.: +32 09 222 88 38, Fax.: +32 9 220 49 92, email: newcarlton@busmail.net. Prices: Single: 67 EURO, double: 80 EURO, breakfast included. Web page: www.promin.be/hotel/ncarlton

Reservations can be made using the telephone, fax or email. You can pay with credit cards, cash or via an invoice.

For a map of Gent with the above hotels and the conference site marked, click here.

TRAVEL INFORMATION.

By plane or train. There are direct trains from the airport (Zaventem) to Gent. In the airport, follow the signs to the train station and ask a ticket to Gent Sint-Pieters. In Gent, you may either take a taxi, or a bus or a tram to the hotel. From the airport to Gent it takes the train approximately 40 minutes. To reach the department by tram, take numbers 21/22 on the platform opposite the train station platforms.

By car: travel directions can be found on http://cage.ugent.be/foto/map.html (the location is ``Departments of Pure Mathematics'').

WEB PAGE

The web page of the conference is http://cage.ugent.be/~hvm/conference.html

Hope to see you in October!

The organizers,