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

为了激发人们对数学研究的兴趣和活动，美国国家科学基金会每年都支持一些NSF-CBMS数学科学区域研究会议。每个为期五天的会议都有一位杰出的讲师，他就一个重要的当前研究主题在数学科学的一个重点领域发表十次演讲。讲师随后根据这些讲座准备一篇说明性的专著，通常由美国数学学会或工业与应用数学学会出版，或由美国统计协会和数理统计研究所联合出版。这些会议的某些特点区别于典型的研究会议。这些是：(1)由一位领先的实践者专注于一个重要和及时的研究领域；(2)通过区域重点来持续影响和局部刺激；(3)对质量、广度和及时性进行小组审查；(4)为更广泛的受众出版专著。这个项目将支持这样一个会议，该会议将于1998年6月22日至26日在明尼苏达大学举行，Robert J. Zimmer作为主要讲师，主题是“遍历理论、群和几何”。讲座的重点将是如何运用测量理论方法来研究流形上的群作用，从而获得有趣的几何或拓扑信息。齐默教授在这门学科的发展中发挥了主导作用，并在许多重要的最新成果中发挥了主导作用。讲座将介绍该领域的主要技术，并调查最近的主要发展和开放的问题。

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.