"Topological Methods in Group Theory" is a conference to be held at Ohio State University, during the week of June 16th-20th, 2014. Group theory is an area of mathematics that was developed in the early 1800's. It provides the appropriate language for studying the collection of symmetries of an object, and is central to much of modern day mathematics. The central player in this theory is an algebraic structure called a group. In the early 1980's, the Russian geometer Misha Gromov realized that one could apply geometric techniques to study these algebraic structures. This remarkable insight led to the development of a new field - geometric group theory. This field is extremely active, with a lot of mathematicians both in the US and abroad. The conference is intended to bring together experts in the field to discuss the latest developments in the area.
The conference will feature a large number of plenary talks, both from well-established leaders in the field, as well as from promising young researchers. Some of the topics that will be featured include:(i) groups of finite asymptotic dimension, (ii) amenability of groups,(iii) special cube complexes and applications, (iv)finiteness properties of groups, (v) Thompson's group and analogues, (vi) Coxeter and Artin groups, (vii) L^2-cohomology techniques, (viii) Cannon-Thurston style maps and applications. In addition to the plenary talks, we plan on having shorter (20mn) talks run in parallel sessions, giving younger mathematicians and graduate students the opportunity to broadly disseminate their results. For more information, please check https://people.math.osu.edu/lafont.1/TopMethodsConf.html
The area of geometric group theory focuses on using geometric and/or topological methods to address problems arising in group theory (algebra). It is a relatively young field, having its origins in work of Gromov in the late 1970s. Over the last 40 years, this area has grown tremendously, with many active research groups scattered throughout the world. Ohio State University has long been one of the main centers for research in geometric group theory. The conference "Topological Methods in Group Theory" was held at Ohio State University, during the week of June 16-20, 2014. It brought together many leading experts to exchange ideas and discuss the latest developments in the field. The conference featured 19 plenary talks (50mn) by well-established mathematicians. In addition, students and postdocs were given the opportunity to give short talks (20mn) presenting their research. Their were 22 shorter talks in two parallel sessions. NSF funds were used to provide financial support (travel and lodging) to conference participants -- with priority given to supporting younger faculty and graduate students. Conference proceedings are currently in preparation, in order to broadly desiminate some of the results presented at the conference. We expect the proceedings to be published in 2016.
