9714890 Friedman This award provides partial support for a two-day conference in low-dimensional topology at Columbia University and Barnard College on March 14-15, 1998. Specific areas of concern are: knot theory via braid representations, quantum and finite type knot invariants, and the study of the mapping class group, both as it pertains to 3- manifold classification and in connection with the analogies between the cohomology of the mapping class group and the braid group. The invited speakers include Colin Adams, Robert Ghrist, Vaughan Jones, Xiao-Song Lin, William Menasco, Jozef Przytycki, and Caroline Series. The conference surveys the broad outlines of a field that has seen dramatic progress over the last fifteen years, some of which have already found application in the study of DNA and long polymers. It also explores future directions for research in the field. ***
