This award provides support to defray expenses of participants in the 2011 and 2012 meetings of the Great Plains Operator Theory Symposium (GPOTS). GPOTS 2011 will be held at Arizona State University during the period May 18-22, 2011 and GPOTS 2012 will be held at the University of Houston during the period May 30-June 3, 2012.
The meetings will be both dynamic and topical, focusing on several high-impact areas. The focus areas will include classification of C*-algebras and von Neumann algebras; wavelets, frames and their applications; operator spaces/systems and their applications; the interaction between non-selfadjoint operator algebras and function theory; dynamical systems for C*-algebras and von Neumann algebras; subfactors; and the interaction between discrete mathematics and operator algebras. The themes of the meetings demonstrate the surprising links among operator algebras, geometry, and topology; the connections between frame theory and computing; and the relationships among von Neumann algebras, mathematical physics, probability, and random matrix theory.
These GPOTS meetings will bring together both experienced and junior researchers, including graduate students, and postdocs to discuss recent work and advances in operator theory and operator algebras. GPOTS conferences are an extremely attractive and welcoming venue for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty, serving as a springboard for their future in the profession. A priority of the 2011-2012 GPOTS conferences will be to build up networks, that facilitate the entry into the operator theory and operator algebras research community, of graduate students, postdocs, and new faculty members who are interested in operator theory and operator algebras - with a particular emphasis on underrepresented groups. Priority for funding will be given to graduate students, other young researchers and participants without other support as well as members of groups underrepresented in mathematics. In addition to advancing areas of mathematics, the subject matter of GPOTS 2011-2012 has connections to engineering, quantum computing and mathematical physics.
The 31st annual GPOTS was held at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ April 18-22, 2011. The conference web site is at http://gpots.events.asu.edu/home, where a complete list of participants and invited speakers, event schedule, and some slides from the talks themselves can be found. There were 96 participants, including 18 invited speakers and 19 women. The participants came from various countries in addition to the US: Denmark 8, Canada 7, Norway 3, Australia 2, Israel 2, Germany 1, New Zealand 1, Poland 1, and Spain 1. Of the invited speakers, 10 spoke for 1 hour (including 3 women) and 5 for 1/2 hour (including 1 woman). The invited speakers also represented a variety of countries besides the US: Canada 2, Denmark 2, Germany 1, New Zealand 1, and Norway 1. In addition to the 15 invited speakers, the $25,000 in NSF money from the conference grant was used to support 56 of the conference participants, including 20 faculty, 9 post-docs, and 17 grad students.The levels of support for the participants (excluding the invited speakers) broke down roughly as: $300 for faculty, $400 for post-docs, and $500 for students. GPOTS 2011 was organized by Steve Kaliszewski, John Quigg, and Jack Spielberg, all at Arizona State University. The Scientific Committee comprised Marius Dadarlat (Purdue University), Dave Larson (Texas A&M University), Paul Muhly (University of Iowa), Judith Packer (University of Colorado), Gilles Pisier (Texas A&M University), and Stefaan Vaes (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. The choices of main speakers for GPOTS 2011 were made with the following seven themes in mind: Classification of C*-algebras and von Neumann algebras, Wavelets, frames and their applications, Operator spaces/systems and their applications, Interaction between non-self-adjoint operator algebras and function theory, Dynamical systems for C*-algebras and von Nemann algebras, Subfactors, and Interaction between discrete mathematics and operator algebras. In addition to the 15 invited speakers, there were 50 contributed 20-minute talks in 3 parallel sessions (including 9 women).
