In June 2006, the eighteenth international conference entitled Formal Power Series and Algebraic Combinatorics (FPSAC) will be held in Pacific Beach, California. These annual FPSAC conferences have considerable interdisciplinary breadth---linking leading researchers in combinatorial mathematics with strong researchers in allied fields. The principal topics featured during the FPSAC 2006 conference willbe algebraic and enumerative combinatorics and their applications and relations to other areas of mathematics, physics, biology and computer science. The interdisciplinary span is evidenced by the choice of plenary speakers, including Mage Bayer, Fan Chung, Jim Haglund, Bruce Sagan, and Michelle Wachs from the U.S., Tom Koorniwinder from the Netherlands, Seok-Jin Kang from Korea, Nigel Ray from he United Kingdom.
A distinguishing characteristic of FPSAC conferences is the concerted effort to recognize and encourage outstanding young scientists. This is accomplished by the tradition of designating an award for most outstanding submission by a junior researcher and by choosing to highlight some stellar work of younger researchers as plenary speakers. Each year the FPSAC conference sees announcements of some of the major advancements in the field of algebraic and enumerative combinatorics. This year will be no exception with presentations of beautiful results by Thomas Lam, Gilles Schaeffer, Mark Shimozono and many others.
