The human brain is one of the most fascinating objects in the living word. Besides keeping us alive by regulating all vital functions, e.g., our heartbeat, respiratory and sleep rhythms, it is involved in all our feelings, thoughts and decisions and sustains our learning processes and creativity. It works reliably for decades with remarkable energy efficiency, consuming thousands of times less than a small supercomputer.

Contrary to other organs, such as the heart or lungs, which obviously give rise to many questions of interest for the science of mechanics, including fluid structure interaction problems with strong forcing, large deformations and inertial effects, brain mechanics has been the object of comparatively little interest. Yet, it is increasingly recognized that mechanics plays a central role in shaping both brain form and function and is involved in a large range of brain diseases.

The purposes of this Euromech colloquium is to:

• foster interactions between current research about brain microcirculation, cerebrospinal fluid/interstitial fluid flows and brain tissue mechanics and, 
• highlight the potential of combining knowledge from these fields to develop a global approach of brain mechanics linking molecular, cellular, tissue, and organ scales and enabling to understand the transition between health and disease. 

This Euromech colloquium will be be part of a larger scientific event, the Lorentz Workshop "Bridging the Gap: from Brain Mechanics to Brain Dynamics". If you are interested to participate, please contact the colloquium co-chairs.