The conference KUMUNU 2015 will be held at the University of Missouri-Columbia on October 24 and 25, 2015. KUMUNU is the annual weekend conference anchored by the University of Kansas (KU), University of Missouri (MU), and University of Nebraska (NU). It was founded by the algebraists in these three institutions in 1999 to promote interaction among faculty, post docs and graduate students in commutative algebra and related disciplines. The three institutions are within 5 hours driving distance and with modest travel and lodging support the weekend KUMUNU conferences continue to have significant regional impact. The KUMUNU conference has a strong tradition of playing an important mentoring role for graduate students, recent PhDs, and early career faculty in research institutions and four-year colleges. KUMUNU provides an annual venue for these groups to come together with senior researchers at KU, MU and NU along with two or three senior researchers from some institutions not so near. The conference also features talks by three graduate students, one each from KU, MU and NU who present their developing theses. KUMUNU stimulates interactions by having talks on current research accessible to graduate students with ample time and opportunity for interaction outside of talks in an informal and friendly setting. Kumunu 2015 will feature talks by Professors Craig Huneke(Virginia), Christel Rotthaus (Michigan State) and Anurag Singh (Utah) and three talks by faculty from KU, MU and NU. In addition to faculty and students from KU, MU and NU, and other institutions from Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, KUMUNU draws participants from neighboring states such as Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Oklahoma, and North Dakota. One of the main goals is to showcase research of young faculty, helping enrich the research programs of recent PhDs and graduate students in commutative algebra and related fields by both formal and informal mentoring from experienced researchers. In addition, KUMUNU serves to enhance the existing strengths at these three institutions. The conference website is http://kumunu.missouri.edu
The KUMUNU 2015 will provide an opportunity for mathematicians to interact and establish research connections with each other; in particular, the participants will interact with other researchers and hear and discuss recent developments in the field and its relationships with other areas. The primary impacts of the conference will be its dissemination of recent ideas in commutative algebra and algebraic geometry, and stimulation and enrichment of the research careers of students and early career participants. Participants will take ideas from the conference back to their colleagues and students, stimulating further research and mathematical enrichment at their home institutions. The relatively small size of the meeting and its geographic and disciplinary focus will be particularly effective at enabling participants to establish productive collaborative relationships. Encouragement and mentoring that begins at the conference will significantly contribute to the success and professional development of early career mathematicians whether in research institutions or primarily teaching institutions. The travel and lodging support provided by NSF for this conference is a key element for the success of the conference.
