"Panorama of Topology" is a conference which will be held May 8-11, 2012 at Princeton University. This conference is aimed at a wide audience of topologists, presenting many of the current great developments in this broad subject. Several themes will hold the conference together: Recent breakthroughs in hyperbolic geometry, three-manifold topology and geometric group theory leading to proofs of the virtual Haken and Ehrenpreis conjectures; major developments in Floer homology and categorification; and recent breakthroughs in homotopy theory, including the Kervaire invariant one conjecture. Conference speakers include A. Adem, I. Agol, A. Bahri, W. Browder, F. Cohen, J. Kahn, P. B. Kronheimer, R. Lipshitz, D. McDuff, J. Morgan, J. Rasmussen, D. Ravenel, N. Reshetikhin, W. Thurston, V. Voevodsky, K. Vogtmann, and D. Wise.
In the past few decades, the subject of topology has experienced fundamental and transformative developments. Some of these developments come from its interactions with other fields of mathematics, including ideas from algebraic geometry, ergodic theory, geometric group theory, constructions inspired by mathematical physics, and links with representation theory. The aim of this conference is to bring together a broad spectrum of topologists to help foster communication between the various specializations, and to inspire a new generation of young researchers in this exciting and quickly-developing branch of mathematics. Architects of these developments will give research talks on their areas of expertise. The schedule will consist of roughly five hour-long talks per day, and some time for the researchers to interact with one another. The budget will help support the speakers, and it will provide partial support to graduate students and other young researchers to come participate in this event. Registration for the conference is available at the conference website, https://cgi.math.princeton.edu/conference/browder2012/registration.html
The conference "Panorama of Topology" in honor of William Browder was held May 8-11, 2012. It featured a wide range of superb lectures by many of the leaders in topology and related areas and well attended by many people including many graduate students and postdocs. The lectures focused on major current developments and future directions. The conference included a one hour "open mike" session, whereby about a half dozen participants presented brief impromptu talks of mathematical topics and/or led discussions on issues of professional interest. In particular a graduate student led a discussion soliciting opinions as to how young mathematicians should balance focusing on one topic vs. having a broad mathematical knowledge. William Browder gave an inspiring lecture about his mathematical life, including the struggles he had to overcome to succeed, e.g. having his thesis collapse just before he expected to defend. (An error was discovered in the work of another mathematician on which the thesis crucially relied.) More information about the conference can be found at http://web.math.princeton.edu/conference/browder2012/index.html. The lectures including the open mike session were recorded and are available at http://web.math.princeton.edu/conference/browder2012/program.html . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
