The last few years have seen remarkable progress in several subfields of global Riemannian geometry including the geometrization program, rigidity and finiteness theorems for manifolds with various curvature bounds, classification theorems for manifolds with large isometry groups etc. This conference will gather many of the people in the field who have made lasting contributions and present directions for future research. In particular, we expect to encourage and support graduate students and young researchers to attend this conference. The conference will give them an overview of techniques and methods in global Riemannian geometry. It will also provide them with an opportunity to have direct contact with the best researchers, with each other and foster good opportunities for collaboration. The proposal seeks funding for a mathematical conference entitled, ''Future directions in global Riemannian geometry''. The conference will be held September 22nd-September 24th, 2006 at the mathematics department of the University of Maryland, College Park. The conference is being held to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of renowned geometer Karsten Grove of the University of Maryland, College Park who has made seminal contributions to the study of global geometric properties of higher dimensional objects called Riemannian manifolds. The past few years have seen several exciting developments in Riemannian geometry and our goal is to encourage new ideas and more collaboration between graduate students, young researchers and other Riemannian geometers.
