Dear Colleagues and Members,

We are approaching a key annual ERCOFTAC event: The Autumn Festival. This year it is organized by the Pilot Center (PC) France Henri Bénard and will be held in Lyon on 6th and 7th October.

As in every ERCOFTAC Festival, the first day is dedicated to research presentations from and discussions with the organizing pilot center. After participating in more than 30 festivals, I can say, it has been a humbling experience to see the breadth and depth of topics our community covers.

The second day, with committee meetings, sounds less exciting, but it is there where new initiatives and future directions of our community are born, e.g. the creation of a Special Interest Group (SIG) or the election of ERCOFTAC officers. Stay tuned to hear more on this after the festival!
 
What makes attending the Autumn Festival even more special to me is that it features the final event of the Da Vinci competition. Every year the pilot centres nominate candidates for this prize to recognize young researchers with an excellent PhD thesis in fundamental or applied fluid dynamics and outstanding scientific contributions with engineering relevance. I’m always impressed seeing the high-quality presentations of the finalists. They showcase so well the talent and research in our field!
 
Another event coming up soon is DLES13 in Udine, Italy on 26^th to 28^th October (see below). DLES is organized by SIG1 Large Eddy Simulation, one of our oldest SIGs. DLES provides an excellent view on the state-of-the-art of DNS, LES and related techniques such as hybrid RANS/LES.

SIG-events like DLES are promoted by ERCOFTAC via this newsletter and our other communication channels, but I was wondering whether you would like to hear more about our SIGs. We regularly report on our PCs in the ERCOFTAC Bulletin and on Da Vinci finalists and, more recently, on women in ERCOFTAC via social media and our website. Should we similarly provide more information on the people and topics of our SIGs? Let us know what you would like to see!
 
Best regards and hope to meet you in Lyon,

Prof. Dominic von Terzi,
Chairperson of ERCOFTAC