Conference: Manifolds and Groups: Towers of Covers; September 7th - September 12th, 2015, Ventotene, Italy

该项目支持美国数学家参加将于2015年9月7日至9月12日在意大利文托特内举行的国际研讨会“流形和群：覆盖塔”。研讨会的一个主要目标是培养和支持几何分析领域的下一代数学家。该会议将有助于教育研究生和新近的博士在该领域的最新发展。会议将向初级数学家介绍几何群论的各种主题，并将他们带到研究的前沿。会议的一部分将专门用于三门小型课程，由专家讲授，这些专家也以其具有启发性的演讲能力而闻名。在迷你课程的同时，还会有研究讲座。组织者将促使演讲者把他们的演讲面向广大的数学家听众。大部分资金将用于支持来自美国的青少年参与者。组委会将鼓励和支持广泛和多样化的参与。特别是，特别鼓励女数学家和其他代表性不足群体的成员申请支持。讲习班包括以下三个关于“覆盖塔”的不同方面的小课程：“秩一和更高秩李群中的不变随机子群”（tachik Gelander，希伯来大学和魏茨曼研究所），“覆盖和展开”（Emmanuel Kowalski，苏黎世联邦理工学院）和“有限覆盖塔中的L^2不变量和同调的增长”（Roman Sauer，卡尔斯鲁厄理工学院）。研讨会还将以研究讲座和非正式讨论为特色。参与者将包括来自与研讨会核心（三流形拓扑，概率和分析群论）相关的不同领域的美国和欧洲领先研究人员以及初级研究人员，包括研究生和博士后。更多信息可以在网站上找到：https://www.ventotene2015.net/

This project supports participation of US based mathematicians in the international workshop "Manifolds and Groups: Towers of Covers" which will take place from September 7th until September 12th, 2015, in Ventotene, Italy. A major goal of the workshop is to train and support the next generation of mathematicians in the field of geometric analysis. The conference will help to educate graduate students and recent PhDs on the latest developments in the field. The conference will introduce junior mathematicians to various topics in geometric group theory and bring them up to the forefront of research. A part of the conference will be devoted to three mini-courses, taught by experts known also for their ability to give enlightening lectures. In parallel to the minicourses, there will be research talks. The speakers will be prompted by the organizers to aim their lectures at a broad audience of mathematicians. The majority of funding will support junior participants coming from USA. The organizing committee will encourage and support broad and diverse participation. In particular, women mathematicians and members of other under-represented groups are especially encouraged to apply for support. The workshop consists of the following three minicourses on different aspects of "Towers of Covers": "Invariant Random Subgroups in rank one and higher rank Lie groups" (Tsachik Gelander, Hebrew University and Weizmann Institute), "Coverings and expanders" (Emmanuel Kowalski, ETH Zurich), and "L^2-invariants and growth of homology in towers of finite coverings" (Roman Sauer, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology). The workshop will also feature research talks and informal discussions. Participants will include leading U.S. and European researchers from different areas relevant to the centerpiece of the workshop (3-manifold topology, probability and analytic group theory) as well as junior researchers, both graduate students and postdocs.More infromation can be found at the websitehttp://www.ventotene2015.net/