Special Year in Number Theory

该奖项部分资助了伊利诺伊大学1999/2000年度数论的一个特别年度。国际数论专家的短期和长期访问将在2000年5月21日至26日在伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校举行的千禧年数论国际会议上达到高潮。还计划在特别年期间举行几个较小的会议，包括1999年秋季举行的区域会议；2000年初举行的研究生会议；以及2000年夏季举行的关于费马最后定理的教学会议。预计这些活动将有助于传播该领域的最新进展，促进数论领域顶尖研究人员之间的互动，促进该领域的研究，并对数论领域的年轻研究人员和高级研究生的职业生涯起到重大推动作用。数论在研究整数方面有其历史，它解决了一些问题，如处理一个整数被另一个整除的问题。它是数学中最古老和最丰富的分支之一，人们出于纯粹的美学原因而追求了许多个世纪。然而，在过去的半个世纪里，它已经成为数据传输和处理、密码学和通信系统等领域的各种应用中不可忽视的工具。

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.