Conference - The 2010 Graduate Student Topology and Geometry Conference to be held Spring 2010 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor

在三年一度的中西部拓扑学研讨会取得成功的基础上，来自中西部几所院校的几何和拓扑学研究生开始了一年一度的研究生拓扑学会议。密歇根大学现在已经是第八个年头了，它将在2010年主办这次会议。全体演讲者将是来自德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的艾伦·里德和来自罗切斯特大学的道格·拉弗内尔。此外，研究生的24场讲座将在以下许多子领域进行，分时段进行：双曲几何、三-流形、同伦理论、辛几何、动力学、纽结理论、余边理论、范畴理论、Teichmueller理论、四-流形、微分拓扑学、几何群论和代数K-理论。今年，我们非常兴奋地首次增加了由当地年轻教师在三个不同的几何/拓扑学领域开设的三个开放问题课程。这笔赠款主要是为与会者和演讲者提供旅行援助。会议将持续两天，为首次介绍和富有成果的讨论以及开始新的合作提供充足的机会。这种会议形式帮助初学的研究生广泛介绍活跃而多样的数学领域，同样也帮助即将毕业的大龄研究生过渡到他们的博士后，了解他们所在领域的一大群同行。几乎没有做过的数学是完全孤立的。最常见的情况是，当数学家们相互借鉴彼此的创造力和想法时，新的数学就诞生了。对于年轻的数学家(研究生)来说，从一开始就感觉到自己是这个充满活力的合作数学社区的一部分，这一点很重要。现在已经是第八个年头了，研究生拓扑学和几何学会议是一个为期两天的活动，来自全国各地的研究生，来自各个年龄段的学生，都会来分享他们在几何和拓扑学方面的工作。他们与他们的数学同行见面并交谈，获得在会议上发表演讲的专业经验，并听取国内一些最杰出的教授的意见。会议形式包括研究生、博士后和杰出教师的演讲。几何和拓扑学是不同但又相关的数学领域。拓扑学研究的是没有距离概念的“粗糙”空间，而在“几何学”中，空间配备了一种精确的长度和面积测量方法。这两个领域相互作用，相互影响，彼此影响很大。虽然几何学和拓扑学通常被称为“纯粹的”数学，但它们在量子计算、DNA研究和理论物理中有着重要的应用。这笔赠款主要用于支付预计将有160名与会者的旅费。

Building upon the success of the tri-annual MidWest topology seminars, graduate students in Geometry and Topology from several MidWest institutions began an annual Graduate Student Topology Conference. Now in its eighth year, the University of Michigan will be hosting the conference in 2010. The plenary speakers will be Alan Reid from University of Texas, Austin, and Doug Ravenel from University of Rochester. In addition, twenty-four talks by graduate students, run in parallel sessions, will be delivered in many of the followingsubfields: hyperbolic geometry, three--manifolds, homotopy theory, symplectic geometry, dynamics, knot theory, cobordism theory, category theory, Teichmueller theory, four--manifolds, differential topology, geometric group theory, and algebraic K--theory. This year we are very excited to add, for the first time, three open-problem sessions run by local young faculty in three different areas of geometry/topology. The grant is primarily to provide travel assistance for participants and speakers.The conference will run two days and provide ample opportunities for first introductions and fruitful discussions to occur, as well as new collaborations to begin. This conference format helps beginning graduate students to gain a broad introduction to an active and diverse area of mathematics, and equally well helps older graduate students nearing the end of their degrees to transition to their post-docs knowing a large group of peers in their field.Very little math is done is complete isolation. Most often, new mathematics comes about when mathematicians feed off of each others'creativity and ideas. It is important for young mathematicians (graduate students) to feel part of this vibrant collaborative mathematical community from the get-go. Now in its eighth year, the Graduate Student Topology and Geometry Conference is a two day event in which graduate students from across the country, from all years of study, come to share their work in Geometry and Topology. They meet and talk with their mathematical peers, gain professional experience presenting at a conference, and hear from some of the most distinguished professors in the nation. The conference format consists of talks by graduate students, post-docs, and distinguished faculty.Geometry and Topology are different, but related, fields of mathematics. While Topology is the study of "coarse" spaces without a notion of distance, in Geometry, spaces come equipped with a precise way of measuring length and area. These two fields interact and inform one-another greatly. Although typically coined as "pure" math, geometry and topology have important applications to quantum computing, DNA research, and theoretical physics. This grant is primarily to fund the travel expenses for the expected 160 participants.