Title: Numerical approximation of axisymmetric geometric
evolution equations (joint work with John W. Barrett and Harald Garcke)

We present variational formulations of mean curvature flow and 
surface diffusion for axisymmetric hypersurfaces in R^3. 
On recalling important properties of the schemes introduced by the authors
for the corresponding geometric evolution equations for closed curves in 
the plane, we introduce suitable finite element approximations, and 
investigate their stability and vertex distribution properties.