9704858 Sommers The International Research Fellow Awards Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a six-month postdoctoral research visit by Dr. Eric N. Sommers to work with Professor Hamet Seydi of the Universite Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, under the sponsorship of Professor Serigne Aliou Lo, Senegal. Support for this award comes from the ANESA Program of the Division of International Programs. This project involves the study of representation theory of algebraic objects with the affine flag manifold. Specifically, the PI is interested in studying representations of the affine Weyl group and the double affine Hecke algebra which can be constructed using geometric techniques involving the affine flag manifold. A problem that has become integral to his work involves determining the structure of the ring of functions on nilpotent orbit closures. As Dr. Sommers works on his project, he will forge new relationships with mathematicians in newly developing African universities. Currently, there are few existing ties among mathematicians in the U.S. and West Africa. ***
