Building upon the success of the tri-annual MidWest topology seminars, graduate students in Geometry and Topology from several MidWest institutions began an annual Graduate Student Topology Conference. Now in its eighth year, the University of Michigan will be hosting the conference in 2010. The plenary speakers will be Alan Reid from University of Texas, Austin, and Doug Ravenel from University of Rochester. In addition, twenty-four talks by graduate students, run in parallel sessions, will be delivered in many of the following subfields: hyperbolic geometry, three--manifolds, homotopy theory, symplectic geometry, dynamics, knot theory, cobordism theory, category theory, Teichmueller theory, four--manifolds, differential topology, geometric group theory, and algebraic K--theory. This year we are very excited to add, for the first time, three open-problem sessions run by local young faculty in three different areas of geometry/topology. The grant is primarily to provide travel assistance for participants and speakers. The conference will run two days and provide ample opportunities for first introductions and fruitful discussions to occur, as well as new collaborations to begin. This conference format helps beginning graduate students to gain a broad introduction to an active and diverse area of mathematics, and equally well helps older graduate students nearing the end of their degrees to transition to their post-docs knowing a large group of peers in their field.
Very little math is done is complete isolation. Most often, new mathematics comes about when mathematicians feed off of each others' creativity and ideas. It is important for young mathematicians (graduate students) to feel part of this vibrant collaborative mathematical community from the get-go. Now in its eighth year, the Graduate Student Topology and Geometry Conference is a two day event in which graduate students from across the country, from all years of study, come to share their work in Geometry and Topology. They meet and talk with their mathematical peers, gain professional experience presenting at a conference, and hear from some of the most distinguished professors in the nation. The conference format consists of talks by graduate students, post-docs, and distinguished faculty. Geometry and Topology are different, but related, fields of mathematics. While Topology is the study of "coarse" spaces without a notion of distance, in Geometry, spaces come equipped with a precise way of measuring length and area. These two fields interact and inform one-another greatly. Although typically coined as "pure" math, geometry and topology have important applications to quantum computing, DNA research, and theoretical physics. This grant is primarily to fund the travel expenses for the expected 160 participants.
, and it was very successful. Though there are many conferences for mathematicians, this conference series is mainly organized by students with some advice from some faculty members so that it will meet the needs of students and hence will be more beneficial to them. Besides two plenary talks by established mathematicians, which gave the students a glimpse of some most advanced results in topology and geometry, most of the other talks were presented by graduate students, and over 160 students came from all over USA and Canada and actively participated in the conference. Besides the talks which presented new results, the PI also suggested to organize 3 open problems sessions to show the participants concretely what needs to be done and interesting directions to pursue. Many participants told the PI and the organizers that the open problem sessions were the most exciting part of the conference. These open problem sessions were very well attended, and they are continued for this year's conference at Michigan State University. This conference provided a unique opportunity for students to present and interact with other people in the broad area of topology and geometry. The purpose of this conference to provide a hands-on learning experience for both the students organizers and participants was well met.
