The PI will organize a conference on Algebraic Topology, Homotopy theory, and its applications in October 2009, to be held at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, honoring J. Peter May on the occasion of his 70th birthday. The conference will consist of a Friday colloquium by a leading researcher, followed by two days of talks. The speakers in the conference will represent a cross-section of established researchers and recent Ph.D.'s from a variety of institutions. The talks will describe the leading current developments and trends in the fields of Algebraic Topology and Homotopy Theory such as those pertaining to topological field theories, higher category theory, and interactions with arithmetic algebraic geometry. Emphasis will be placed on encouraging participation by graduate students, recent Ph.D.'s, women, and members of underrepresented minority groups.
The conference will stimulate research in a major branch of the mathematical sciences. The proposed format of the conference is designed to foster the development of undergraduate and graduate student participants with an interest in algebraic topology, by giving them access to leading researchers in the field. The subject matter of the conference is interrelated to many different branches of mathematics, and the conference therefore has the potential to bring about new collaborations and discoveries to groups of researchers in the mathematical sciences. The accessibility of the conference will be augmented by the creation of a web page which will distribute the contents of the presentations on the internet.
