DEM 2007 Editorial

The 4th International Conference on Discrete Element Methods (DEM 2007) was held on 27 August-29 August, 2007 at Brisbane Hilton, Australia. The DEM 2007 conference was the fourth in the series and was dedicated to bringing together leading researchers from the many scientific disciplines and application areas that are spanned by these discrete computational methods. The conference dealt with all aspects of the numerical schemes that drive DEM, including coupling to other methods, experimental validation of predictions, and all applications of DEM including industrial applications. Theme 1 of the conference included numerical methods, validation and novel applications, while Theme 2 was based on powder technology, process engineering and industrial applications. The conference hosted the first DEMGallery organized by Prof. Dr. Mark Sawley from EPFL, Switzerland, in which images submitted by the DEM community were assessed on both their artistic and scientific content.