Conference Proposal: Kylerec Student Workshop in Symplectic and Contact Geometry

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

This National Science Foundation award provides partial support for the next two Kylerec student workshops to be held in 2018 and 2019. The Kylerec workshop aims to introduce aspiring mathematicians in the fields of symplectic and contact geometry and from many institutions to vibrant areas of research, fostering collaboration, forming strong research ties between young researchers, and thus promoting future collaboration and research. The workshop is specifically designed to encourage the development of a diverse group of researchers in the fields of symplectic and contact geometry. It is a week-long intensive workshop, in which all activities occur under one roof. The lectures are delivered by the graduate student participants with the help of three to four mentors, who are emerging expert researchers in the field. This setup enhances communication skills, encourages active involvement of the participants and forging new collaborations. In 2018, the workshop will be held from May 25 to May 31 in the Leavenworth Lodge in Leavenworth, WA, and will be mentored by Thomas Kragh (Uppsala), Roberta Guadagni (U. Penn.), Jingyu Zhao (Brandeis) and Kyler Siegel (MIT). The topic is the nearby Lagrangian conjecture, which is a central open question about the symplectic topology of cotangent bundles, and has been a nexus for much of the recent technical development in the subject. The objective of this workshop is to understand the state of the art in this problem: including both the technical tools utilized, such as Fukaya categories, as well as some of the broader philosophy that has come out of work on this problem. Notes from the lectures and further information will be available on the website https://kylerec.wordpress.com/. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.