Homotopy Theory Conference in Kinosaki, Japan

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract Award: DMS-0304445 Principal Investigator: W. Stephen Wilson A major international conference on homotopy theory and algebraic topology will be held July 28 - August 1 in Kinosaki, Japan. The conference will honor Professor Goro Nishida of Kyoto University on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Professor Nishida has been the dominant force in algebraic topology in Japan for the last 10 years. With his name associated with the conference, participants will be attracted from all over the world. It will be a major meeting place for mathematicians who do not normally manage to get together. The conference will focus on the broad range of subjects which Professor Nishida has influenced which are still critical to today's research agenda in the field: localization, periodicity in homotopy theory, Morava K-theory, infinite loop spaces, homology and cohomology operations, modular forms, group cohomology and classifying spaces. This proposal is for funding to supply transportation for researchers from the U.S.A. to attend the conference. The conference itself is funded by Japan including the local support of our participants. This conference will be the major international conference in the field for the year 2003. Distance and cost makes it difficult for Japanese and American mathematicians to mix on a scale like this with any frequency. This will be the biggest opportunity in over a decade (since Professor Toda's 60th birthday conference) for many non-Japanese to attend a conference in this field in Japan. Such an opportunity may not come again for another decade. This grant will allow several graduate students and recent Ph.D.s to attend. It will also fund the largest contingent of U.S. women to ever attend a conference in our field in Japan. In addition, it will fund some researchers who have regular contact with Japan through previous visits and graduate students. This contact will have a much broader impact on research than just the conference. Participants will establish research relationships which will last for many years and help stimulate more interaction. We would also expect to recruit numerous Japanese graduate students to come to the U.S.A. Bringing such students abroad is difficult to arrange, and the kind of personal interactions that occur at such conferences speed up the process enormously. The presence of a cadre of Japanese students with research experience in the USA is enormously important for scientific exchange in the long run.