Professor Michel Broue of the University of Paris VII will give a series of ten lectures entitled "Blocks, Deligne-Lusztig varieties and reflection groups." In these lectures he will explain recent advances in the modular representation theory of finite reductive groups obtained by using Deligne-Lusztig varieties to study the modular representation of these groups, and how the results thus obtained give strong indications that there is an as yet undiscovered "generic" representation theory from which the modular representation theory of finite reductive groups can be recovered by specialization. He will also relate this progress to long-standing conjectures in modular representation theory and discuss directions for future research. The lectures should be of interest to experts and students in all areas of finite group representation theory as well as researchers in other fields, particularly those interested in the various aspects of complex reflection groups.
