NSF/CBMS Regional Conference in the Mathematical Sciences on Ergodic Theory, Groups and Geometry, June 22-26, 1998, to be held at the University of Minnesota

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To stimulate interest and activity in mathematical research, the National Science Foundation each year supports a number of NSF-CBMS Regional Research Conferences in the Mathematical Sciences. Each five-day conference features a distinguished lecturer who delivers ten lectures on a topic of important current research in one sharply focused area of the mathematical sciences. The lecturer subsequently prepares an expository monograph based upon these lectures, which is normally published by the American Mathematical Society or the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, or jointly by the American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. Certain features differentiate these conferences from typical research conferences. These are: (1) Focus on a single important and timely area of research by a leading practitioner, (2) Continued effect and local stimulation through regional emphasis, (3) Panel review for quality, breadth, and timeliness, and (4) Published monographs for a wider audience. This project will support such a conference, which will be held June 22-26, 1998 at the University of Minnesota, with Robert J. Zimmer as the principal lecturer, on the topic "Ergodic Theory, groups, and geometry." The emphasis of the lectures will be on how to obtain interesting geometric or topological information by applying measure theoretic methods to the study of group actions on manifolds. Professor Zimmer has played a leading role in the development of this subject, and in many of the significant recent results. The lectures will provide an introduction to the main techniques of the field, and survey the major recent developments and open problems.