This award provides partial funding for a two-week program "Biology, Analysis, Geometry, Energies, Links" that will take place during June 17 - 28, 2019 at the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications in Minneapolis, MN. The goals of this program are twofold. On the one hand, it is focused on interdisciplinarity, bringing different scientific groups together whose research areas are adjacent but would benefit from closer collaborations. On the other hand, this program aims at bridging gaps between different stages of scientific development: namely undergraduate study, graduate work, and postdoctoral research. The first week is a summer school targeted at graduate students and early career researchers. This is followed by a workshop that builds on the topics covered in the prior week and features speakers from a broad set of disciplines such as mathematical physics, topology, approximation theory, analysis, and microbiology.
Low-dimensional topology, geometry and knot theory are excellent platforms for collaboration and training: they are highly interdisciplinary, and have features that are accessible to a beginner, while at the same time connecting to the deepest and most advanced realms of mathematics, biology, and physics. The summer school presents a state-of-the-art introduction to several mathematical fields concerned with curves, surfaces, and higher-dimensional analogs. The workshop will present the latest developments in the fields discussed at the summer school and beyond. Topics to be explored include nonlinear mechanics, topological fluid dynamics, low-dimensional topology, quantum invariants, homology theory, categorification, contact geometry, geometric curvature energies, discretization of geometric flows, and discrete differential geometry. More information about the event is at : www.ima.umn.edu/2018-2019/SW6.17-28.19
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
