This award supports the research of Professor Richard Stanley in the field of algebraic combinatorics. Stanley will continue his research in two main areas: (a) convex polytopes and related geometric objects, and their connections with algebra, geometry and topology, and (b) symmetric functions, representation theory, and their applications to combinatorics. This research is in the general area of Combinatorics. Combinatorics attempts to find efficient methods to study how discrete collections of objects can be arranged. The behavior of discrete systems is extremely important to modern communications. For example, the design of large networks, such as those occurring in telephone systems, and the design of algorithms in computer science deal with discrete sets of objects, and this makes use of combinatorial research.
