The conference KUMUNU 2013 will be held at the University of Missouri-Columbia on September 21 and 22, 2013. KUMUNU is the annual weekend conference anchored by the University of Kansas (KU), University of Missouri (MU), and University of Nebraska (NU). It was founded by the algebraists in these three institutions in 1999 to promote interaction among faculty, post docs and graduate students in commutative algebra and related disciplines. The three institutions are within 3-5 hours driving distance and with modest travel and lodging support the weekend KUMUNU conference will continue to have significant regional impact. KUMUNU moved to Missouri in 2012. Last year we held the conference in Columbia on the weekend of September 22-23. The KUMUNU conference has a strong tradition of playing an important mentoring role for graduate students, recent PhD's and early career faculty in research institutions and four year colleges in the extended midwest/great plains region. KUMUNU provides an annual venue for these groups to come together with senior researchers at KU, MU and NU along with two or three senior researchers from some institutions not so near. KUMUNU stimulates interactions by having a series of 6 or 7 talks on current research accessible to graduate students with ample time and opportunity for interaction outside of talks in an informal and friendly setting. In addition to faculty and students from KU, MU and NU, and other institutions from Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, KUMUNU draws participants from neighboring states such as Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Oklahoma, and North Dakota. One of the main goals is to showcase research of young faculty, helping enrich the research programs of recent PhD's and graduate students in commutative algebra and related fields by both formal and informal mentoring from experienced researchers. In addition, KUMUNU serves to enhance the existing strengths at these three institutions. The conference website is http:/kumunu.missouri.edu.
The KUMUNU conference will provide an opportunity for mathematicians to interact and establish research connections with each other; in particular, the participants will benefit from interaction with other researchers and from seeing recent developments in the field and its relationships with other areas. The primary impacts of the conference will be its dissemination of recent ideals in commutative algebra and algebraic geometry, and stimulation and enrichment of the research careers of students and early career participants. Participants will take ideas form the conference back to their colleagues and students, stimulating further research and mathematical enrichment at their home institutions. The relatively small size of the meeting and its geographic and disciplinary focus will be particularly effective at enabling participants to establish productive collaborative relationships. Encouragement and mentoring that begins at the conference will significantly contribute to the success and professional development of early career mathematicians whether in research institutions or primarily teaching institutions.
This project was to significantly fund lodging and travel costs of participants to the KUMUNU 2013 conference. KUMUNU is an annual conference in mathematics, focusing on research in commutative algebra and algebraic geometry. KUMUNU rotates between the Universities of Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. The 2013 conference was hosted by the University of Missouri, and the conference was held on its campus in Columbia, Missouri. The 2013 conference was held on the weekend of September 21 - 22, 2013. There were 80 participants. Almost all of these participants were from nearby states in the midwest, and more than half of them were graduate students. There were 6 main speakers. They were David Buchsbaum (Brandeis University), Alberto Corso (University of Kentucky), Sara Gharahbeigi (University of Missouri), Srikanth Iyengar (Univeristy of Nebraska), Bangere Purna Prajna (University of Kansas) and Hal schenck (University of Illinois). There were three talks delivered by graduate students of the Universities of Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska. The webpage of the conference is http://kumunu.missouri.edu The NSF funding allowed graduate students and junior faculty from midwest universities and faculty from smaller area colleges to attend the conference. Benefits for the younger participants to the conference include that it allowed them to meet senior researchers in their area, learn about research areas and employment opportunities, and to network with other people in the area.
