Conference: Contemporary Combinatorics 2007

这次会议的目的是将一群与组合数学松散相关的杰出数学家聚集在一起，从最广泛的意义上理解他们。这次会议将使来自中南部的数学家有机会不仅从讲座中受益，而且还从与演讲者的个人接触中受益。会议的主要演讲者是当今最杰出的数学家之一，纽约库兰特研究所的彼得·拉克斯，1986年国家科学奖章获得者，1987年沃尔夫奖获得者，2005年阿贝尔奖获得者。非常准确地说，他被描述为当今最多才多艺的数学家。他从纯数学开始，但他最大的贡献是偏微分方程的理论和应用，以及它们的解的计算。特别是，他构造了非线性双曲型系统的显式解，并确定了一类行为特别良好的系统。Lax也是一位出色的讲解者，几本成功著作的作者，也是一个非常平易近人的人。会议上还将有其他几位令人兴奋的演讲者；他们之所以被选中，是因为他们不仅是优秀的数学家，而且还是出色的讲解者和非常平易近人的人。他们包括俄亥俄州立大学的维塔利·伯格尔森，他对遍历理论，特别是受到斯杰梅里迪算术级数定理启发的弗斯滕伯格的工作中的递归理论做出了重大贡献；来自微软研究院和加州大学伯克利分校的YuvalPeres，他是研究概率论组合方面最著名的人之一；来自伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校的Sasha Kostochka，一位非常强大的数学家，他是极端组合学的火炬；孟菲斯大学的Ralph Faudree，他是Paul Erdos最频繁的合作者之一，Ramsey类型问题的专家；来自苏黎世ETH的Stephanieke，他在纯数学和计算机科学的界面上做了出色的工作；佐治亚理工学院的汤姆·特罗特，现代偏序集理论的创始人之一；俄亥俄州立大学的鲍里斯·皮特尔，概率组合学的最好的研究人员之一；以及英国剑桥大学的马克·沃尔特斯，他在随机自举渗流和随机几何图方面证明了很多。来自布达佩斯的Gyr‘as Gy’Arf‘as将针对非常广泛的听众做一场特别的’公开‘演讲，其中包括来自该地区的一些最优秀的高中生。与东海岸或西海岸的湾区不同，中南部地区不能夸耀有很多高水平的数学会议；在孟菲斯举行的当代组合2007年会议在某种程度上扭转了这种平衡。一年前发现，大力鼓励讲师和其他与会者进行个人接触的模式非常成功，这也是我们希望在2007年会议上做到的。毫无疑问，聆听彼得·拉克斯、维塔利·伯格森、尤瓦尔·佩雷斯等人的演讲，特别是在会议期间与他们交谈，对年轻的和知名的数学家来说都是非常鼓舞人心的。NSF的拨款对会议的成功绝对至关重要；其中大部分将用于帮助研究生和高级数学家来到孟菲斯，这样他们就可以从讲座和与演讲者的个人接触中受益。

The aim of this conference is to bring together a group of outstanding mathematiciansloosely connected to combinatorics, understood in the widest sense. The meeting will givea chance to mathematicians from the Mid-South to benefit not only from the lectures butalso from personal contacts with the speakers.The main speaker at the conference is one of the most distinguished mathematicians today,Peter Lax of the Courant Institute in New York, the recipient of the National Medal ofScience in 1986, the Wolf Prize in 1987, and the Abel Prize in 2005. Very accurately,he has been described as the most versatile mathematician today. He started in puremathematics, but his greatest contributions have been to to the theory and applicationof partial differential equations and to the computation of their solutions. In particular,he constructed explicit solutions of nonlinear hyperbolic systems and identified classes ofespecially well-behaved systems. Lax is also a wonderful expositor, the author of severalsuccessful books, and a very approachable man.There will be several other exciting speakers at the meeting; they have been chosen becausethey are not only excellent mathematicians, but also wonderful expositors and very approachablepeople. They include Vitaly Bergelson of Ohio State University, who has mademajor contributions to ergodic theory, especially to recurrence theory stemming from thework of Furstenberg inspired by Szemeredi's theorem on arithmetic progressions; YuvalPeres from Microsoft Research and UC Berkeley, one of the most notable people workingon combinatorial aspects of probability theory; Sasha Kostochka from the University ofIllinois at Urbana-Champaign, a very powerful mathematician who is carrying the torchfor extremal combinatorics; Ralph Faudree from the University of Memphis, one of themost frequent collaborators of Paul Erdos, an expert on Ramsey-type problems; StephanieGerke of ETH in Zurich, who has done beautiful work on the interface of pure mathematicsand computer science; Tom Trotter of Georgia Tech, one of the founders of the moderntheory of partially ordered sets; Boris Pittel from Ohio State University, one of the bestpeople working on probabilistic combinatorics; and Mark Walters from the University ofCambridge, England, who has proved much about random bootstrap percolation and randomgeometric graphs. Andr'as Gy'arf'as from Budapest will give a special 'public' lectureaimed at a very wide audience, including some of the best high school students from thearea.Unlike the East Coast or the Bay Area on the West Coast, the Mid-South cannot boast ofmany high-level mathematical conferences; the Contemporary Combinatorics 2007 meetingin Memphis goes some way towards redressing the balance. The formula whereby personalcontacts between the lecturers and the other participants is greatly encouraged was foundto be very successful a year ago, and this what we hope to do at the 2007 meeting aswell. There is no doubt that listening to lectures by Peter Lax, Vitaly Bergelson, YuvalPeres, and others, and, especially, talking to them during the conference will be veryinspiring for young and established mathematicians alike. The NSF grant is absolutelyvital for the success of the meeting; most of it will be used to help graduate students andsenior mathematicians come to Memphis so that they can benefit from the lectures andthe personal contact with the speakers.