14th International Conference on Approximation Theory

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

Investigators

Abstract

Schumaker DMS-1243266 The investigator and his colleagues organize an international conference on Approximation Theory, to be held in San Antonio, TX on April 7-10, 2013. The meeting engages about 150 mathematical scientists from academia, industry, and government laboratories from around the world. It continues the tradition of triennial meetings in the subject which began in 1973, and which have been the premier comprehensive meetings in the area. The meeting features eight one-hour survey lectures on topics of current interest (including applications of radial basis functions in partial differential equations, isogeometric analysis, multivariate orthogonal polynomials, nonlinear approximation, rational interpolation, subdivision methods, and wavelets). The Seventh Vasil A. Popov Prize in Approximation Theory is awarded at the meeting, with the winner giving one of the plenary lectures. The conference runs for four days, and includes about 130 additional invited and contributed presentations. As with all of the previous meetings, a carefully reviewed and edited conference proceedings is planned. Participants in this conference present recent advances in approximation theory, a field of mathematics that has had a major impact on science and engineering for well over 100 years, and that has enabled concrete technological advances in the United States. For example, the mathematics in this area has had significant impact on computer-aided design and manufacture (a key tool in the aircraft and automotive industries), animation and computer graphics (major tools in the video gaming and movie industries), data compression and processing (critical to information technology applications such as HDTV or medical imaging), geophysical problems (such as weather modeling and oil exploration), uncertainty quantification (which plays an important role in environmental and climate modeling as well as nanotechnology), and modeling in the business world. This conference brings together students, junior researchers, and leaders in the field from around the world, aids young researchers in advancing their careers, and attracts PhD students to work in the subject.