Richard Stanley is one of the major figures in combinatorics. His work has been of fundamental importance in many areas of combinatorics (especially in the areas of enumeration, lattices and partially ordered sets, matroids, and hyperplane arrangements) and in connections between combinatorics and other fields such as commutative algebra, algebraic geometry, representation theory of symmetric and classical groups and Lie algebras, and topology. In addition, his two-volume textbook "Enumerative Combinatorics," and his advising of numerous students, have been enormously influential in the development of the field.
This conference will put into perspective some of the important advances that have come from Stanley's work, and bring together researchers in the different areas of combinatorics in which he has worked. The conference will enable researchers in these fields to learn from each other, and will promote further development of the connections between different areas of combinatorics and between combinatorics and other areas of mathematics. Support from the NSF will be used to fund travel expenses of participants, especially those who would not otherwise be able to attend. Funding of travel expenses for researchers in early stages of the their careers will be a priority.
