GodboleNSF-CBMS Regional Conference Proposal #9415060 ABSTRACT: "Probability, Algorithms and Combinatorial Optimization"This proposal "NSF-CBMS Regional Conference in the Mathematical Sciences - Probability, Algorithms and Combinatorial Optimization" is being written with the conviction that the Principal Lecturer (PL), J. Michael Steele of the University of Pennsylvania, will deliver ten successful and timely lectures on topics in an important, rapidly growing and sharply focused area of the Mathematical Sciences. We believe that a better choice of Principal Lecturer simply cannot be made. Michael Steele is a world-renowned authority in the areas of Probability, Algorithms and Combinatorial Optimization; a spokesperson for the field of Applied Probability; a renaissance mathematician who has contributed much to the understanding of several fields (and the glue that binds them together); and widely regarded as a superb lecturer and expositor.We are confident that the conference participants, drawn from a pool of established researchers and new entrants to the field; women, minorities and graduate students; people with primary interests in other branches of the Mathematical Sciences and those from smaller non research-intensive schools; will each be able to develop professionally, make critically important long-term contacts, and succeed in making significant contributions of their own, as a result of attendance at this conference.The conference lectures will survey major ideas and recent results, while suggesting important future directions; they will be delivered during the third or fourth week of July 1995 on the campus of Michigan Technological University (MTU) in Houghton, Michigan. The organizational details and local arrangements will be taken care of by the Principal Investigator (PI), Anant P. Godbole, who, along with several of his colleagues at MTU, maintains a vital interest in the areas represented by the conference. The PL will deliver to the CBMS a monograph entitled "Probability, Algorithms and Combinatorial Optimization" by February 1, 1996; it will subsequently be published either by IMS/ASA or SIAM. The Principal Lecturer will deliver two lectures during each of five days. Several formal and informal discussion sessions will be planned, so as to maximize the amount of quality time spent together by the participants. Michael Steele's lectures will be delivered in the ultra- modern Room U115 of the Materials and Minerals (M&M) Building overlooking Portage Lake. Two or three rooms will be set aside in Fisher Hall, a short distance away, for group discussions. Another classroom will be converted into a coffee room/lounge. Participants will be housed in Wadsworth Hall, on the campus of MTU. Participants will have access to all the athletic and library facilities at MTU, and will have accounts in the Mathematical Sciences Department NeXT Workstation Lab. Several organized social activities will be planned, and a conference banquet will be held during the middle of the week.
