The annual Workshop on Automorphic Forms and Related Topics has built a reputation as an internationally recognized and respected conference that is attended by leading experts in this broad area of mathematics. Traditionally, this workshop serves a healthy balance of students, junior faculty, and senior faculty from many types of academic institutions in geographically diverse areas and encourages them to deliver research presentations. This workshop strengthens the automorphic forms research community by providing mentoring and professional development for junior researchers in this active field.
Automorphic forms is a central subject in contemporary number theory with deep connections to many areas across mathematics and the mathematical sciences including representation theory, combinatorics, and mathematical physics. In 2011, the theme of the Automorphic Forms Workshop is the theory of harmonic weak Maass forms. As an example of the subject's importance, in the last works of Ramanujan, in particular his last letter to Hardy and his lost notebook, the subject of mock theta functions was introduced. For many decades, mathematicians were unable to understand mock theta functions as part of a larger context. However in recent work of Zwegers, mock theta functions are identified as occurring as the holomorphic parts of harmonic weak Maass forms, thus generating a fresh torrent of research in Maass forms, mock modular forms, and automorphic forms in general.
The annual Workshop on Automorphic Forms and Related Topics has built a reputation as an internationally recognized and respected conference that is attended by leading experts in this broad area of mathematics. Automorphic forms is a central subject in contemporary number theory with deep connections to many areas across mathematics and the mathematical sciences including representation theory, combinatorics, and mathematical physics. Traditionally, about half of the participants of the workshop are American mathematicians at early stages or their carreers, for which the workshop is extremely beneficial. Historically, approximately one third of the participants are women. The workshop is known for its inclusive, encouraging atmosphere, and it is a popular forum for graduate students and new PhDs to give their first public presentation. Overall, the purpose of teh workshop is twofold: 1. To advance research in automorphic forms, one of the most vital areas of mathematics, by providing a forum for sharing ideas and results, and creating an opportunity for collaborations. 2. To develop the automorphic forms community by bringing students and postdocs into the fold in a welcoming, encouraging environment, and by having panel discussions of value to junior mathematicians. The 25th Automorphic Forms Workshop was held at Oregon State University March 23-26, 2011. We had 46 mathematicians in attendance, including many internationally recognized experts as well as many graduate students and junior faculty. There were 34 presenatations on various topics related to automprphic forms, and there were two panel discussions. The first panel discussion was on the topic of doing research with students, while the second was on navigating career transitions. All in all, is was a very successful workshop, and many participants commented that they found the talks, panels, discussions, and collaborations extremely beneficial. At the end of the workshop, plans were made for additional workshops. We are tremendously grateful to the NSF for the support of this workshop.
