The principal investigators propose to organize the fifth Yamabe Memorial Symposium, with an emphasis on geometry and low-dimensional topology, at the School of Mathematics of the University of Minnesota from Friday to Sunday, October 8-10, 2010. The list of speakers includes Toby Colding, Kenji Fukaya, David Gabai, Ko Honda, Claude LeBrun, Melissa Liu, Yi Ni, Ron Stern.
Professor Hidehiko Yamabe (1923--1960) was an active and highly collaborative mathematician in the School of Mathematics of the University of Minnesota from 1954 to 1960. His sudden illness and untimely death occurred in the same year that he moved to Northwestern University. His work on topological groups, geometry and analysis were outstanding contributions to modern mathematics. In year 2001, we proposed to enhance the Yamabe Memorial Lecture by creating the Yamabe Memorial Symposium, a top-level biennial geometry conference in the School of Mathematics, University of Minnesota. Every two years, perhaps in the Fall of even-numbered years, mathematicians will gather at the University of Minnesota for a long weekend to hear geometry talks, discuss the latest research and interact with graduate students and junior researchers. In each biennium, a specific area within geometry will be singled out for special emphasis. One goal will be, as a way to honor the memory of Hidehiko Yamabe, to advance areas of mathematics related to his interests, which touched in a substantial and ground-breaking way on several quite different areas of mathematics, all of which may be roughly described as having significant geometric aspects. At the same time, it will provide a valuable opportunity for graduate students and junior researchers to interact with, and learn from, mathematicians working at the highest international level. Finally, a long-lasting benefit will be the stimulation of innovative developments in mathematics research. The previous Yamabe Memorial Symposiums were held in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008 respectively with a great success.
The conference web page is www.math.umn.edu/yamabe/.
The fifth Yamabe Memorial Symposium took place from Friday to Sunday, October 8-10, 2010. Each of the following mathematicians gave one-hour talk in the Symposium. Toby Colding (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Kenji Fukaya (Kyoto University), David Gabai (Princeton University), Ian Hambleton (McMaster University), Claude LeBrun (State University of New York at Stony Brook), Melissa Liu (Columbia University), Yi Ni (California Institute of Technology), Ron Stern (University of California at Irvine). The conference was well attended, with 56 registered participants. A majority of them were graduate students and young researchers. There was a notably high degree of interaction of a mathematical nature among the speakers, organizers and other participants during the coffee breaks and the Saturday banquet. In total, in addition to the eight speakers, 25 out-of-town participants were partially supported for their expenses up to $600, thanks to the funds made available by the NSF. The generous support from the National Science Foundation was crucial to the success of this conference, particularly, to the high attendence of graduate students and young researchers to the conference. Funds for participant support were awarded competitively. Participants were asked to apply by Tuesday, August 31, 2010. Later applications were also considered as funds allowed. Highest preference was given to younger scientists (grad students, postdocs, young faculty or researchers at most five years after Ph.D.), but all active people were eligible. Women and minorities were especially encouraged to apply. Those who had resources available from their own grants were requested to rely on such resources. Applicants were requested to send a CV, including a brief description of research interests, and have one letter of recommendation sent to the conference organizers. The recommendation letter was optional for people more than three years after receiving a Ph.D.; in those cases, the CV was used instead. The support from NSF for the conference was acknowledged in various ways. At the time when the conference posters were mailed to more than sixty leading universities, the support from NSF was displayed there. This information was also included in the conference web page, www.math.umn.edu/yamabe. Also, the support was verbally acknowledged by the organizers during the conference. Further information including the schedule of the conference and the list of participants is available on the website www.math.umn.ed/yamabe.
