Gerhard Ertl received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2007 for his studies on heterogeneous catalysis and self-organization processes in surface chemical reactions.  He was the director of the Physical Chemistry department at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin, where he is currently a Professor Emeritus. Prof. Alexander S. Mikhailov, of the same institute, is a theoretical physicist who has been working with G. Ertl for more than twenty years. He is the author of three monographs published by Springer and was awarded the International Solvay Chair in Chemistry in 2009. Together, the authors initiated and organized a series of international conferences on "Engineering of Chemical Complexity".

• Self-organization vs. self-assembly.- Thermodynamics of open systems.- The Turing instability.- Waves in the heart.- The Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction.- Surface catalysis.- Corrosion of steels.- Nonequilibrium soft matter.- Phase transitions in reactive systems.- Self-organization in biological cells.- Protein machines and molecular motors.- Active propulsion on microscales.- Oscillators and synchronization phenomena.- Chemical chaos.- Network problems.- Design and control of self-organizing systems.- Open problems and application perspectives.

Gerhard Ertl received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2007 for his studies on heterogeneous catalysis and self-organization processes in surface chemical reactions.  He was the director of the Physical Chemistry department at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin, where he is currently a Professor Emeritus. Prof. Alexander S. Mikhailov, of the same institute, is a theoretical physicist who has been working with G. Ertl for more than twenty years. He is the author of three monographs published by Springer and was awarded the International Solvay Chair in Chemistry in 2009. Together, the authors initiated and organized a series of international conferences on "Engineering of Chemical Complexity".

• Self-organization vs. self-assembly.- Thermodynamics of open systems.- The Turing instability.- Waves in the heart.- The Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction.- Surface catalysis.- Corrosion of steels.- Nonequilibrium soft matter.- Phase transitions in reactive systems.- Self-organization in biological cells.- Protein machines and molecular motors.- Active propulsion on microscales.- Oscillators and synchronization phenomena.- Chemical chaos.- Network problems.- Design and control of self-organizing systems.- Open problems and application perspectives.

Gerhard Ertl received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2007 for his studies on heterogeneous catalysis and self-organization processes in surface chemical reactions.  He was the director of the Physical Chemistry department at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin, where he is currently a Professor Emeritus. Prof. Alexander S. Mikhailov, of the same institute, is a theoretical physicist who has been working with G. Ertl for more than twenty years. He is the author of three monographs published by Springer and was awarded the International Solvay Chair in Chemistry in 2009. Together, the authors initiated and organized a series of international conferences on "Engineering of Chemical Complexity".

• Self-organization vs. self-assembly.- Thermodynamics of open systems.- The Turing instability.- Waves in the heart.- The Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction.- Surface catalysis.- Corrosion of steels.- Nonequilibrium soft matter.- Phase transitions in reactive systems.- Self-organization in biological cells.- Protein machines and molecular motors.- Active propulsion on microscales.- Oscillators and synchronization phenomena.- Chemical chaos.- Network problems.- Design and control of self-organizing systems.- Open problems and application perspectives.