This award supports participation in a conference on commutative algebra, KUMUNU 2017, which will be held at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, October 21-22, 2017. KUMUNU (which is named for its original participating institutions (the University of Kansas, the University of Missouri, Columbia, and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln) is an annual conference (held since 1999) for commutative algebraists in the Great Plains region and attracts participants from a significantly larger geographical region. Invited speakers are Melvin Hochster (University of Michigan), Sam Payne (Yale University), Greg Blekherman (Georgia Institute of Technology), Linquan Ma (University of Utah), Dana Weston (University of Missouri), Mark Walker (University of Nebraska), and Alessandro Di Stefani (University of Nebraska). The conference will also include a poster session for junior researchers. Talks will be held from noon on Saturday to noon on Sunday, thereby minimizing expenses for participants. The funds will be used to pay one night's accommodation and travel expenses, with an emphasis on graduate students and early career researchers.
The general goal of KUMUNU is to provide a setting to share cutting-edge mathematical research and promote collaborations among algebraists in or within driving distance of the Great Plains region. Major goals specific to KUMUNU 2017 are to broaden the geographic reach of the conference, promote a connection between commutative algebra and related areas, and showcase the research of early career mathematicians. In an effort to promote connections between commutative algebra and other areas, talks from some experts on tropical geometry, convex geometry, and optimization are included. KUMUNU 2017 aims to advance mathematics through the dissemination of new and innovated results and techniques via research talks. These talks may inspire participating mathematicians with new ideas, and promote collaboration among them. Informal discussions between talks should also help spread new results and ideas. Since some of the talks will not be focused purely in commutative algebra, new connections may be made. Additionally, both senior researchers from regional institutions and junior researchers will be invited to speak, giving them the chance to exhibit their work. More details are available at the conference website: http://dept.ku.edu/~math/conferences/KUMUNU/2017/.
