This award supports participation in three meetings in a series of annual conferences held at Cornell University and next convening May 8-10, 2015. The conference series subject area is algebraic, differential, and geometric topology and allied subjects. The conference series provides a significant arena for the development and dissemination of a wide array of research results and has been a force in the mathematical life of topologists and geometers in the northeastern United States and beyond since 1963. It has a broad, interdisciplinary flavor and collaboration-friendly format. The meetings begin with an introductory day aimed at graduate students and non-specialists. The training effects are extended by dissemination of lecture notes and summaries of panel discussions.
Approximately ten speakers are invited each year, from a variety of subject areas in and around topology. Each year an area of emphasis is chosen from which about a third of the speakers are drawn; this allows deeper focus on fields undergoing rapid change and is responsive to the trends in topology toward specialization and cross-disciplinary activity. For the 2015 meeting, the area of emphasis will be "groups acting on negatively curved spaces." The broader impacts of the conference series include (a) a more broadly-trained community of topologists, able to transcend the boundaries of sub-specialties; (b) a more diverse mathematical workforce; (c) a more rapid integration of younger topologists into areas of current research; and (d) the enhancement of collaboration among researchers in different areas of topology. The conference series web site is www.math.cornell.edu/~festival/.
