The French Group of Rheology, under the auspices of the European Society of Rheology, organised the “de Gennes Discussion Conference”, entitled: From reptation to glassy materials: de Gennes pioneering work in rheology and recent developments.

The conference was held in February, 2-5, 2009, in Chamonix (France), a nice city nested in the Alps, at the foot of Mont Blanc. This Conference aimed at gathering a wide community involved in the fields of rheology for which de Gennes’ contributions have been decisive. The Conference was based on invited lectures by distinguished experts in different fields. The presentations were distributed in thematic workshops in which all the participants had the possibility to present a poster after a short plenary oral presentation (of about 5 min.). Also, round tables were organised. The main topics included: Polymer melt rheology and dynamics; Polymers in solutions and specific interactions; Polymers at surfaces and interfaces; Suspensions.