Abstract
Famously, Anderson showed in 1958 that non-interacting quantum mechanical electrons placed in a random potential could fail to exhibit diffusion. In 2005 Basko, Aleiner and Altshuler put the long conjectured extension of the Anderson localization to the interacting setting, termed Many Body Localization, on a much firmer footing setting off a rapidly growing volume of work on this phenomenon. I will describe the broad outlines of this work and discuss how it has both enriched our understanding of the foundation of quantum statistical mechanics and led to the remarkable notion of non-equilibrium quantum phase structure that lies outside the former.

Please note
The Colloquium Ehrenfestii takes place on Wednesday evenings starting at 19:30 hours in the main auditorium of the Oort building. Before the Colloquium, there is a common dinner in the canteen located on the ground floor of the Oort building. This dinner starts at 18:00 hours sharp and is FREE of charge, under the condition that one attends the colloquium and that one has made a reservation before noon on the Tuesday preceding the colloquium. 

The registration form is only accessible from within the University (to block spammers); if you would like to register for the dinner from outside the University, please send an email to fran@lorentz.leidenuniv.nl   The revolving doors to the Oort building  are accessible until 9 pm after that they are locked and one should instead use the sliding doors directly adjacent to the Huygens building: these can be opened with an electronic key (seek help from locals).