I am pleased to announce that Doug Kellner has agreed to visit UTA and inaugurate our Center for Theory lecture series. Tentatively, Doug will visit in mid-September. I'll keep you posted about details of the visit. We hope to bring in another speaker during the spring semester. Suggestions of names will be appreciated, especially if the prospective speakers have a lot of frequent-flyer miles! Also, we need to start a 'theory colloquium,' showcasing theoretical work (and work-in-progress) done by UTA faculty and grad students and by people in the vicinity. I am hoping that we can meet monthly to hear people informally present such work, perhaps talking for half an hour and then opening the floor to discussion. If you have something you want to present, please let me know the topic/title and the month in which you'd like to present. I'm thinking that such colloquia could be held on Thursdays at about 12:30pm, but, of course, we're flexible about this. I hope that these informal colloquia can begin early in the fall. Ben