The study of 3-manifolds could be described to the lay person as the study of all possible 3-dimensional universes which are locally "like" the space we live in. This project will continue research into a class of 3-manifolds called laminated manifolds. It has the potential to influence the subject quite significantly, especially if two goals are achieved. The first goal is to extend methods and theorems from the well-known class of Haken manifolds to the larger class of laminated manifolds. The second goal is to show that, in some sense, "most" 3- manifolds are laminated. Another part of the project deals with surfaces or 2- manifolds. Here the object is to study certain geometric structures on surfaces, the spaces of these structures (Teichmueller spaces), laminations to which the geometric structures degenerate, and spaces of these laminations. The remainder of the project deals with codimension-1 laminations in manifolds of arbitrary dimension, especially with those having transverse structures.
