We present here the lectures and a selection of the seminars given at
the Ninth International Workshop on Instabilities and Nonequilibrium
Structures which took place in Vifiadel Mar, Chile, in December 2001.
The Workshop was organized by Facultad de Ciencias Fisicas y
Matematicas, Universidad de Chile, Instituto de Fisica of Universidad
Cat6lica de Valparaiso, Centro de Fisica No Lineal y Sistemas Complejos
de Santiago and Facultad de Ingenieria, Universidad de los Andes, which
starting from this year joins the other institutions in the
coorganization ofthe Workshop. The organizers would like to express
their gratitude to the following sponsors: Facultad de Ciencias Fisicas
y Matematicas de la Universidad de Chile, Instituto de Fisica de la
Universidad Cat6lica de Valparaiso, Facultad de Ingenieria de la
Universidad de los Andes, Centro de Fisica No Lineal y Sistemas
Complejos de Santiago, Academia Chilena de Ciencias, Ministere Francais
des Affaires Etrangeres, CONICYT (Comisi6n Nacional de Investigaci6n
Cientifica y Tecno16gicade Chile) and Departamento Tecnico de
Investigaci6n y de Relaciones Internacionales de la Universidad de
Chile. Enrique Tirapegui PREFACE This book consists of two parts, the
first one has three lectures written by Professors H. R. Brand, M.
Moreau and L. S. Tuckerman. H. R. Brand gives an overview about
reorientation and undulation instabilities in liquid crystals, M. Moreau
presents recent results on biased tracer diffusion in lattice gases,
finally, L. S. Tuckerman summarizes some numerical methods used in
bifurcation problems.