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The Spring, 2016 Finite Element Circus will be held at the University of Maryland on April 15-16, 2016. Details regarding this Circus will be posted as they become available.

Finite Element Circus Book 1977-1979.

Finite Element Circus Book 1980-1984.

Finite Element Circus Book 1985-1989.

Finite Element Circus Book 1990-1994.

Finite Element Circus Book 1995-1999.

Finite Element Circus Book 2000-2004.

Finite Element Circus Book 2005-2009.

Finite Element Circus Book 2010-.

A history of the Finite Element Circus that also covers the time period before the Circus Book was started can be found at Finite Element Circus History.

The Spring, 2015 Finite Element Circus was held at George Mason University on March 27-28. Details regarding this Circus can be found on the George Mason Circus web page

The Fall, 2014 Finite Element Circus was held at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) on October 24-25, 2014. Details regarding this Circus can be found on the IMA Circus web page The Circus immediately followed a workshop on "Structure Preserving Discretizations of Partial Differential Equations" IMA Workshop web page held October 22-24, 2014. This workshop was also a celebration of the 60th birthday of Douglas N. Arnold, whose work has made profound conributions to the field of numerical analysis of partial differential equations.

The Spring, 2014 Finite Element Circus was held at Wayne State University on March 28-29, 2014. Details regarding this Circus can be found on the Wayne State Circus web page

The Fall, 2013 Finite Element Circus was held at the University of Delaware on October 18-19, 2013. Details regarding this Circus can be found on the Delaware Circus web page.

The Spring, 2013 Finite Element Circus was held at Lousiana State University (joint with the Finite Element Rodeo) on March 8-9, 2013. Details regarding this event can be found on the LSU Circus web page.

The Fall, 2012 Finite Element Circus was held at the University of Pittsburgh on Friday, October 19-Saturday, October 20. Details regarding this event can be found on the Pittsburgh Circus web page.

The Spring, 2012 Finite Element Circus was held at Rutgers University (in Piscataway, NJ) on Friday, April 13 -- Saturday, April 14. Details regarding this event can be found on the Rutgers Circus web page.

The Fall, 2011 Finite Element Circus was held at the Avery Point campus of the University of Connecticut on October 14-15. Details regarding this Circus can be found on the Connecticut Circus web page.

The Fall 2004 Finite Element Circus was held at Syracuse University on October 15-16, 2004. Some details regarding this circus can be found on the Syracuse Circus web page.

The Spring 2004 Finite Element Circus was held at the University of Pittsburgh on April 16-17, 2004. Some details regarding this circus can be found on the Pittsburgh Circus web page.

The Fall 2003 Finite Element Circus was held at Cornell University on November 7-8, 2003. Some details regarding this circus can be found on the Cornell Circus web page.

The Finite Element Circus is a regular conference devoted to the theory and applications of the finite element method, and related areas of numerical analysis and partial differential equations. The Finite Element Circus was conceived by Ivo Babuska, Bruce Kellogg, and Jim Bramble over beer and pizza at the Beltway Plaza shopping center in Hyattsville, Maryland in 1970, and the first circus was held at the University of Maryland, College Park late that year. In the early years meetings were held as often as four times a year, but soon a format was established of a one-and-one-half day meeting held every spring and fall at varying locations. Since 1977 the participants and talks have been recorded in "the big book," and the titles for circus talks since 1996 may be found online as well.

Many institutions have hosted the circus over the years: Cornell, Duke, Harvard, NYU, Penn State, Purdue, and Rutgers, the Universities of Chicago, Colorado at Denver, Delaware, Houston, Maryland, Maryland at Baltimore County, Michigan, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, Brookhaven National Labs, and the Naval Academy. Ivo Babuska served as the ringmaster from the inception of the circus through 1995 when Douglas N. Arnold and Richard S. Falk took over. Beginning in 2003, the circus was overseen by Falk and Lars Wahlbin. In spring, 2012, Susanne C. Brenner replaced Wahlbin as co-organizer of the Circus, and in spring, 2016, Peter Monk replaced Rick Falk as co-organizer of the Circus.

There are a variety of traditions associated with the Circus. A pleasant one is the Circus Poem, which is written for each meeting. The first poem on record dates from the Fall 1978 circus.

There once was a fellow named Dare,
Who approximated PDEs with great care.
But the solutions were rough
And the problems were tough,
So he only got O(h²).

Some other poems are on these pages as well.

Speakers at Circus meetings are volunteers from the audience. The length of talks is set depending on the number of volunteers, so speakers have to prepare a talk that can be trimmed to various lengths (15 minutes is typical). The order is assigned randomly at the start of the meeting, so speakers must be present for the entire meeting and cannot request a specific time to talk. Please don't put the organizers in an awkward position by requesting that an exception be made (which won't be granted anyway). Potential participants are strongly encouraged to attend at least one meeting before volunteering to speak.

To be added to or removed from the Circus mailing list, or to update your entry, fill out this form.