CIRM will welcome Prof Konstantin Khanin (Toronto) as Jean-Morlet Chair from January to June 2017. The semester will feature various events. The second event is a conference on Qualitative Methods in Kardar-Parisi-Zhang Universality,a very active area in statistical mechanics and mathematical physics. Tentative speakers include A.Borodin, I.Corwin, M.Hairer, N.O’Connell, E.Pardoux, J.Quastel, T.Seppäläinen and H.Spohn. Scientific and organizing committees include T. Alberts, Y. Bakhtin, E.Cator, D.Dolgopyat etc. Apply by Feb 15, 2017.