The proposal will provide support for participants, especially women, graduate students, postdocs and young faculty in the "Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems Workshop" that will be held at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from March 22 to March 25, 2012.
This conference focuses on a fundamental theme in ergodic theory: connections between ergodic theory and number theory. Several of the topics covered are central in extremely active areas of current research in ergodic theory; ergodic properties of interval exchange transformations and of Teichmuller flows, the pointwise or norm convergence of nonconventional ergodic averages, rigidity of group actions. Young researchers are given ample opportunities to speak, to talk and to participate in the conference activities.
On March 22-25 2012 I organized a workshop at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This workshop brought together young and senior researchers to discuss and present recent breakthroughs in very active research areas of Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems. It started with a keynote/colloquium talk by Prof Jean Christophe Yoccoz from the College de France in Paris, a 1994 Fields medalist recipient. His talk highlighted recent progress and the connections between some of these research areas. The workshop fostered collaborations within and outside UNC Chapel Hill. A volume proceedings containing research articles coming from these collaborations is to be published by Walter de Gruyter on August 2013. (See www.degruyter.com/view/product/185576). The volume also contains two surveys giving nice introductions to some of these breakthroughs. The workshop helped increase the participation of women and young researchers. About one third of the participants were women. Out of the sixteen talks given at the workshop ten came from young researchers. (Graduate students, Post Doc). Three women were among these ten young speakers. Participants came from the USA, Poland, France, Israel, Brazil, Russia and Argentina. This added visibility to UNC - Chapel Hill and helped disseminate further the results discussed at the workshop. Open Problems were raised and discussed during the problem session.
