The Moab Topology Conference will be held May 30 to June 1, 2012. This will be the second topology conference held in Moab, Utah. The focus of the conference will be on geometric and quantum topology. In recent years, these two areas have experienced increasing overlap, and topological quantum field theory predicts that many invariants in quantum topology are closely related to geometric counterparts. For example, the volume conjecture of R. Kashaev, H. Murakami, and J. Murakami asserts that the volume of a hyperbolic knot is determined by asymptotics of colored Jones polynomials.
This conference will further advance the development of these subjects, as follows. First, it will provide opportunities for those conducting cutting-edge research in both fields to present their results. Second, to provide background and training, excellent expositors in the two areas will offer introductory talks. And third, the conference will provide a venue for discussion and collaboration among established researchers and junior mathematicians in both fields. Participants will include many graduate students and early career mathematicians, as well as mathematicians from underrepresented groups. More information can be found on the conference website:
www.math.usu.edu/~geer/conference/
The Moab Topology Conference was held at Utah State University's regional campus in Moab, Utah from May 30 to June 1, 2012. The conference brought together 55 mathematicians from around the United States and international locations, working in two rapidly developing areas of mathematics, namely that of geometric and quantum topology. One of our goals was to stimulate collaboration between researchers in the two fields, in order to help further progress in both areas by discussion of common problems and techniques. To do so, we invited excellent speakers and researchers from both areas. Ilya Kofman, Roland Van der Veen, and Helen Wong gave introductory talks early in the conference, to introduce the participants to mathematics of both areas. They also gave presentations on their own research. Four additional well known researchers, Ian Agol, Oliver Dasbach, Heather Russell, and Abigail Thompson, also spoke on their work. Finally, four junior researchers, selected from student and postdoc participants, gave 20 minute talks about their recent results. Another goal of the conference was to give students and junior mathematicians the opportunity to learn of new research, and to present their work to a broad audience. Of the 55 participants, 33 were graduate students and postdocs. Six of these participants were speakers. All the students and postdocs attend talks by well known researchers and were able to meet a wider community of mathematicians. In summary, the Moab Topology Conference nurtured high quality scientific activity, developed and strengthened scientific collaboration, and exposed young scientists and students to current research.
