Symmetry plays an important role in nearly all branches of science. This is particularly evident in theoretical physics, where representation theory has long been a primary tool. Symmetry aspects have only recently been exploited in certain branches of mathematics. In particular, symmetry has only begun to be exploited in any systematic way in numerical analysis. In applied analysis, the study of symmetry is much more well- developed. In the area of classical differential equations, the understanding of symmetry groups as a central tool has been realized since the last century. In the relatively more recent area of bifurcation theory, symmetry has been exploited systematically only in recent years. There is a growing collection of researchers in numerical analysis who are currently attempting to use symmetry groups as a fundamental tool in their work. This project will support the 1992 AMS-SIAM Summer Seminar in Applied Mathematics to be held from July 26 - August 1, 1992 at Colorado State University. The topic of this conference (the twenty-second in this series) is Exploiting Symmetry in Applied and Numerical Analysis. The major aim of the conference is to provide a wide-ranging survey of the exploitation of symmetry in applied and numerical analysis. A purpose of the seminar is to stimulate interaction between aspects of applied mathematics (e.g., partial differential equations, integral equations, bifurcation), numerical mathematics (e.g., numerical linear algebra, boundary and finite element methods), core mathematics (e.g., representation theory of groups), and classical physics (e.g., Taylor and Benard problems). The seminar will have both an entry level summer school component intended for junior researchers and a frontier research level aspect.
