This award provides support to defray expenses of participants in the Ninth East Coast Operator Algebras Symposium (ECOAS) on the campus of the Purdue University, October 15-16, 2011. The focus of the meeting is on operator algebras and noncommutative geometry, with applications to a wide range of areas from number theory to quantum physics. In addition to facilitating interaction between researchers in the field, the East Coast Operator Algebra Symposia are forums in which young researchers, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the eastern region of the United States can acquaint themselves with current issues at the forefront of research, present their own work, and interact with senior mathematicians in the field. It is expected that the conference will host 60-80 participants, including 40-50 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
Operator algebra theory traces its beginnings to the papers of Murray and von Neumann in the 1930's on rings of operators, and the work Gelfand and Neumark in the 1940's on norm-closed, self-adjoint algebras of operators on Hilbert space. From the start, applications to other fields of mathematics and physics have influenced and even dictated the subject's development. Moreover, even though operator algebra theory has broadened considerably over the past thirty years or so, unexpected connections between different areas within the subject regularly arise. Based on the tradition of past successful ECOAS meetings, there is every expectation that this conference will be an event with significant research and training impact. Scientifically, there is potential for advances in the theory of operator algebras and noncommutative geometry including applications of operator algebras to other disciplines.
held at Purdue University, October 15-16, 2011. The program consisted of five longer lectures by senior researchers, including Fields Medalist Vaughn Jones, and eight shorter lectures given primarily by youger untenured researchers. The general aim of the conference, in addition to its obvious role in disseminating research, is to foster connections between younger and more senior researchers. The lectures delivered covered a range of topics including index theory, noncommutative geometry, free probability, classification of C*-algebras, and subfactors. A complete program appears on the conference's website: www.math.purdue.edu/~thines/ecoas11/index.html. The conference had a very good participation rate: sixty-four attendees. They came not only from the US, but also Canada, Denmark, and France. Remarkably, the funds granted were enough to cover the travel costs of all participants. This was due to the high number of attendees from the Midwest who decided to drive to the conference rather than fly. In fact, we came in somewhat under budget; the surplus has of course been returned to the NSF. Overall, the organizers felt that the conference was very successful, and hope that the NSF will continue to fund this series in the future.
