Conference: Contemporary Combinatorics 2010

这次会议将汇集一群杰出的数学家，他们研究的主题与组合学松散相关，在最广泛的意义上被理解。这次会议将给来自美国中南部的数学家提供一个机会，不仅能从讲座中受益，还能从与演讲者的个人接触中受益。这对所有参与者来说都是非常鼓舞人心的，特别是对那些没有机会近距离接触当今一些顶尖数学家的人来说。会议的主要发言人是耶鲁大学的Gregory Margulis，他在组合学、微分几何、遍历理论、动力系统和李群的离散子群方面做了许多杰出的工作。由于他对数学的巨大贡献，他于1978年被授予菲尔兹奖，2005年被授予沃尔夫奖。会议上将有其他几位优秀的数学家和演讲者；他们之所以被选中，不仅是因为他们是强大的研究数学家，还因为他们是出色的阐释者和非常平易近人的人。在其他演讲者中，我们将邀请密歇根大学的亚历山大·巴维诺克，他在距离几何、凸性及其相关算法方面证明了杰出的成果；Ralph Faudree，已故Paul Erdos最频繁的合作者之一，他在Ramsey理论和极值图论方面做了很多工作；牛津大学的Oliver Riordan是世界上最杰出的组合学家之一，他在许多领域做出了贡献，最近的贡献是稀疏图的收敛序列理论；南卡罗莱纳大学的Laszlo Szekely，他因对离散几何的杰出贡献而闻名；弗吉尼亚大学的Slava Krushkal，他在与Tutte多项式相关的曲面多项式方面做了杰出的工作；孟菲斯大学的Tsz Ho Chan，年轻的分析数论家，他研究了黎曼ζ函数的零对相关，丢芬图近似和素数分布，布达佩斯计算机和自动化研究所的Andras Gyarfas，他是一位高产的组合学家，他在Szemeredi引理的应用方面做了很多工作，还有巴黎CNRS的主任Jean-Paul Thouvenot，他是研究遍历理论和动力系统的先驱之一。其中两场讲座将面向普通观众，包括优秀的高中生。在第一讲中，Ralph Faudree不仅将向观众介绍Paul Erdos对数学的巨大贡献，而且还将描绘Erdos的个人形象，他是20世纪最丰富多彩的数学家之一。在第二节课中，格雷戈里·马古利斯将尝试为观众讲解几何方面的困难数学概念。与东海岸或西海岸的湾区不同，中南部无法举办许多高水平的数学会议；在孟菲斯举行的2010年当代组合学会议在某种程度上纠正了这种平衡。到目前为止，大力鼓励讲师和其他参与者之间的个人接触的模式非常成功，所以这也是我们今年的计划。毫无疑问，听格雷戈里·马古利斯、亚历山大·巴维诺克、奥利弗·里奥丹等人的演讲，特别是在会议期间与他们交谈，对年轻和成熟的数学家来说都是非常鼓舞人心的。

This conference will bring together a group of outstanding mathematicians who work on topics loosely related to combinatorics, understood in the widest sense. The meeting will give a chance to mathematicians from the Mid-South to benefit not only from the lectures but also from personal contacts with the speakers. This is bound to be very inspiring for all the participants, especially for those who otherwise do not do not have a chance to come into close contact with some of today's the leading mathematicians. The main speaker at the conference is Gregory Margulis of Yale University, who has done much brilliant work in combinatorics, differential geometry, ergodic theory, dynamical systems and discrete subgroups of Lie groups. For his great contributions to mathematics he was awarded a Fields Medal in 1978, and a Wolf Prize in 2005. There will be several other excellent mathematicians and speakers at the meeting; they have been chosen because they are not only powerful research mathematicians, but also wonderful expositors and very approachable people. Among other speakers, we shall have Alexander Barvinok of University of Michigan, who has proved outstanding results about distance geometry, convexity and algorithms related to them; Ralph Faudree, one of the most frequent collaborators of the late Paul Erdos, who has done much work on Ramsey theory and extremal graph theory; Oliver Riordan of the University of Oxford, one of the most brilliant combinatorialists in the world, who has contributed to many areas, most recently to the theory of convergent sequences of sparse graphs; Laszlo Szekely of the University of South Carolina, who is well known for his very elegant contributions to discrete geometry; Slava Krushkal of the Unversity of Virginia, who has done outstanding work on polynomials of surfaces related to the Tutte polynomial; Tsz Ho Chan of the University of Memphis, the young analytic number theorist, who has worked on pair correlation of the zeros of the Riemann zeta function, diophantine approximation and the distribution of primes, Andras Gyarfas of the Computer and Automation Institute in Budapest, the prolific combinatorialist, who has done much work on applications of Szemeredi's Lemma, and Jean-Paul Thouvenot, a Director at CNRS in Paris, one of the foremost people working on ergodic theory and dynamical systems. Two of the lectures will be aimed at a general audience, including good high school students. In the first lecture, Ralph Faudree will not only introduce the audience to the immense contributions Paul Erdos made to mathematics, but will also paint a personal picture of Erdos, one of the most colourful mathematicians of the 20th century. In the second lecture Gregory Margulis will attempt to bring difficult mathematical ideas concerning geometry within reach of the audience. Unlike the East Coast or the Bay Area on the West Coast, the Mid-South cannot boast of many high-level mathematical conferences; the Contemporary Combinatorics 2010 meeting in Memphis goes some way towards redressing the balance. The formula whereby personal contacts between the lecturers and the other participants is greatly encouraged has been found very successful so far, so this is what we are planning for this year as well. There is no doubt that listening to lectures by Gregory Margulis, Alexander Barvinok, Oliver Riordan and others, and, especially, talking to them during the conference will be very inspiring for young and established mathematicians alike.