CALL FOR PAPERS --- SOCA'96

          The International Symposium on Combinatorics and Applications

	            Tianjin, China, June 28 -- 30, 1996


This is a preliminary announcement of the International Symposium on
Combinatorics and Applications (SOCA'96), to be held at the Nankai
Institute of Mathematics, in Tianjin, China, June 28 -- 30, 1996.  This
conference will cover all areas of combinatorics and its applications to
computer sciences, mathematical physics, biology, etc.  We welcome
original research articles and expositions addressing major concerns in
these fields.  This conference is part of a special program on
combinatorics supported by the Nankai Institute of Mathematics of
Nanakai University, and is preceded by a workshop on combinatorics (June
17 -- 26), we welcome participants of the conference to spend some time
at the workshop by presenting series of expository lectures to a large
audience of the special program. 

Abstract Submission: Authors are requested to send 3 copies (in English,
double-sided if possible) of an extended abstract to:

William Y. C. Chen -- SOCA'96
Nankai Institute of Mathematics
Nankai University
Tiajin 300071
P. R. China

or send TeX, LaTeX, or AMSTeX files electronically to 

chen@c3.LANL.GOV, or dzd@cs.umn.edu, or hsu@murray.fordham.edu

An abstract should start with the title of the paper, each author's
name, affiliation, and e-mail address, followed by a one-paragraph
summary of the results to be presented.  This should then be followed by
a technical exposition of the main ideas and techniques used to achieve
these results.  The length should not exceed 10 pages.  

The abstract must be received by February 20, 1996 or postmarked by
February 10, 1996 and via airmail.  Authors will be notified of
acceptance or rejection by April 30, 1996.  A camera-ready copy of each
accepted paper is required by May 30, 1996.  The proceedings of the
conference will be available for distribution at the conference,
and a selection of papers from the proceedings will also be published 
in a special issue of Journal of Combinatorial Optimization (Kluwer
Academic Publishers). An author of each accepted paper should attend 
the conference and present the paper.  


The Nankai Institute, founded by the great geometer S.S. Chern,
is located in the charming coastal city of Tianjin, an easy 2 hour
highway drive from Beijing.  Besides convenient access to Beijing, the
city itself offers an enormous variety of restaurants, lodgements, and
tourists attractions. After the conference we will organize a tour to 
Beijing, Tianjin and their vicinity. 


Program Committee co-Chairs:  
	       William Y. C. Chen (Nankai Institute of Mathematics, and
					Los Alamos National Laboratory)
               Ding-Zhu   Du (University of Minnesota, and 	
				 Academia Sinica, Beijing)
               D. Frank   Hsu (Fordham University)


Conference Chair: Hu Gouding (Nankai Institute of Mathematics)


Invited Speakers:   
                    	F.R.K. Chung  	 (Univ. of Penn.)
			Ron L. Graham    (Bell Labs)
			Curtis Greene	 (Haverford College)
		    	David Jackson	 (University of Waterloo)
			Richard Stanley  (MIT)		
			Doron Zeilberger (Temple University)
			

Program Committee:
			E. Bannai (Fukuoka, Japan) 
			H. Enomoto (Yokohama, Japan)  
			M. C. Cai (Academia Sinica, Beijing)
			G. J. Chang (National Chiaotong Univ. Taiwan)
			Robert Gustafson (Texas A&M Univ.)
			A. Lascoux (Univ. of Paris)
			T. Leighton (MIT)
			D. Loeb (Univ. of Bordeaux)
			M. Nivat (France) 
			J. Oxley (Louisiana State Univ)
			J. H. Rubinstein (Australia)	
			J. Y. Shao (Tongji University, Shanghai)
			B. Sagan (Michigan State Univ)
			S. Sundaram (Univ. of Florida)
			X. Viennot (Univ. of Bordeaux)
			H. P. Yap (Singapore) 
			L. Zhu (Suzhou University, Jiangsu)