Special Year in Number Theory

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This award partially funds a Special Year in Number Theory at the University of Illinois in 1999/2000. The Special Year will feature short and long term visits by international experts in Number Theory and culminate in a major international meeting, the Millennial Conference on Number Theory, to be held on May 21 - 26, 2000, at the University of Illinois Campus at Urbana-Champaign. Several smaller meetings are also planned in conjunction with the Special Year, including a regional conference in Fall 1999; a graduate student conference in early 2000; and an instructional conference on Fermat's Last Theorem in the Summer 2000. It is expected that these activities will help disseminate the latest advances in the field, foster interaction between leading researchers in Number Theory, stimulate research in the area, and provide a major boost to the careers of young researchers and advanced graduate students in the area of Number Theory.The Special Year falls into the general mathematical field of Number Theory. Number Theory has its history in the study of whole numbers, addressing such questions as those dealing with the divisibility of one whole number by another. It is among the oldest and richest branches of mathematics and was pursued for many centuries for purely aesthetic reasons. However, within the last half century, it has become an indespensable tool in diverse applications in areas such as data transmission and processing, cryptography, and communication systems.