In the past few years, the field of low-dimensional topology has undergone expansion. The theory has significantly widened in scope and has made use of more and more diverse techniques. The theory has branched out into such varied areas as combinatorial group theory, differential geometry, algebraic geometry and physics in general, spectral theory, representation theory, gauge theory, and others. Moreover, the role of computers in the theory of low-dimensional topology has become increasingly important. This project will support the Conference on Low-Dimensional Topology to be held in May 1992 at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The major areas to be covered in this conference are: (1) negatively curved groups and actions on R-trees, (2) minimal surfaces in low-dimensional topology, (3) hyperbolic 3-manifolds and their representations, (4) combinatorial 3-manifold theory, and (5) gauge theoretic aspects of 3-manifolds. This conference will be held as part of a special emphasis year in topology being held at the University of Tennessee during the 1991-92 academic year.
