This award provides funding to help defray the expenses of US participants, especially women, graduate students, postdocs, and junior faculty, in the international "Conference on Microlocal Methods in Mathematical Physics and Global Analysis" that will be held from June 13-17, 2011, at the Mathematical Institute of the University of Tubingen, Germany.
This conference will focus on a variety of topics in mathematical physics and the theory of partial differential equations on so-called singular spaces, viewed through the lens provided by the well-established methods of microlocal analysis. All of the topic areas referred to in the proposal are central to analysis and extremely active subjects of current research. The format of the meeting is such that young people will have ample opportunities to speak and be otherwise engaged in the various conference activities.
'. The purpose of the NSF funding of the project was to make the travel of US graduate students, postdocs and junior faculty to the conference possible. This was accomplished by funding the travel of five graduate students as well as that of three postdocs and four junior (tenure track) faculty members. The conference was held at the highest international level, and was aimed at bringing together researchers in these areas in order to foster interactions between these related areas in which joint conferences are rare. The number of participants was just under forty, with young researchers forming an important group of participants. Many of the lectures were given by young researchers, including several graduate students, for whom this was the first opportunity to speak at an international meeting. Both mathematical physics and the theory of analysis on singular spaces have been central users of microlocal analysis. The latter is the study of partial differential equations using phase space (or cotangent bundle) techniques; in physical terms,`micro' refers to localization in the momentum as well as the position variables. The aspects of microlocal analysis in use in these areas are different, however, and the main goal of the conference was that by bringing together experts in these areas it will initiate new directions of research and start new collaborative projects. The intensive interaction between the lecturers and the audience, both during the lectures and afterwards, indicated the success of such a joint conference. One immediate result was that the participants became much more aware of work in the `other' side of microlocal analysis relevant to their work, and indicated their intention to incorporate these insights into their future work. The supported participants all found the conference helpful to their research and professional development. Among the comments they gave after the meeting was that the conference showed them many areas in which microlocal techniques are useful and of which they were unaware, allowed them time to discuss ongoing projects with current collaborators and start new collaborations with other participants. Graduate students were particularly enthusiastic about the opportunity to present their work at an international conference.
