International Topology of Manifolds Conference

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports travel for US-based participants in the conference "Topology of Manifolds," held June 27 - July 1, 2016, in Lisbon, Portugal. The event will consist of both plenary talks by senior researchers and contributed talks by junior participants. Manifolds are a generalized notion of space, appearing throughout mathematics and science more broadly. For example, the solutions to a set of equations will often have the structure of a smooth manifold. It is important for both mathematics and its applications to further our understanding of manifolds and their symmetries. Participants in the conference will include leading experts on the study of manifolds, and the purpose of the conference is to further our understanding of this central concept. The conference features plenary lectures by twelve leading world experts. The breadth of the expertise represented by the speakers reflects the breadth of the topic of the conference, the topology of manifolds. Within the topology of manifolds, the conference will focus on three specific areas, the study of moduli spaces, calculus of functors, and algebraic K- and L-theory, all of which have contributed to spectacular classical and recent advances in our understanding of manifolds of low and high dimension. The plenary and contributed talks will cover the forefront of research into the theory of manifolds. The conference will provide younger researchers with opportunities for exchange of knowledge, for networking, and for building collaborations with international peers and future colleagues. This award will increase US participation by supporting travel for US graduate students and speakers. There will be approximately 14 contributed talks at the conference, selected by the scientific committee with attention to diversity, with at least half the talks by young researchers. The conference web page is available at https://sites.google.com/site/manifoldslisbon2016/