A quarter of a century of CONCUR – Report on the 2014 and 2015 editions of the Conference on Concurrency Theory

Abstract

The international Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR), which was launched in 1990 by the eponymous ESPRIT BRA project, reached an important milestone in 2015: its quarter of a century. The event was celebrated twice: first during the 25th edition of the conference, held in Rome in September 2014, and then during its 26th edition, held in Madrid in September 2015, which actually marked CONCUR’s 25th anniversary. It may be noted that both editions took place in capital cities of Mediterranean countries, witnessing the deep rooting of Concurrency Theory in Italy and its active development in Spain. This brings back to mind an old remark by Robin Milner, to the effect that Concurrency Theory, originated in Northern Europe in the late 70’s, was progressively extending its scope towards the Mediterranean, so that its epicentre was “moving South”.
We give next two separate recounts of CONCUR 2014 and CONCUR 2015, with some back and forth excursions from one to the other.