2020 - 2022 Talbot Workshops on Mathematics Centering on Algebraic Topology

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This award provides support for the 2020 Talbot Workshop "Ambidexterity in Chromatic Homotopy Theory" to be held June 21-27 in Nacogdoches, TX, as well as for subsequent workshops in 2021 and 2022. The structure of these workshops reflects the fact that mathematics is an intensely collaborative endeavor, requiring mentorship across generations and formation of trusting relationships within a given cohort. Since the initial meeting, in 2004, the Talbot Workshops have employed a uniquely human-centered approach in introducing scores of young researchers to topics of contemporary interest in a broad range of mathematics centering on algebraic topology. Each workshop gathers about 35 young participants and one or two senior mathematicians for a week-long retreat. The participants, who are mostly graduate students, learn about the workshop’s research topic by exchanging lectures and discussing the topic under the guidance of the mentors. As many of the participants are first- or second-year graduate students looking to get a start in a promising research area, the lectures begin with basic introductory material and lead up to a presentation of open problems. The workshop has been extremely successful, inspiring the future research of many students and establishing numerous collaborations among the participants. There will continue to be a serious effort to insure a broad and diverse participant list. The workshop’s unique format, in which participants live and cook together in a rental house, helps to create and sustain a relaxed and collaborative atmosphere. Organizing the workshop provides an important opportunity for professional development by the leadership committee, which is entirely made up of graduate students with backup oversight by a senior faculty member. Past Talbot Workshops have focused on a wide variety of topics in homotopy theory and surrounding areas, from elliptic cohomology (2004) and Fukaya categories (2009) to non-abelian Hodge theory (2011) and solution of the Kervaire invariant problem (2016), and most recently, recent progress on Moduli Spaces of Manifolds (2019). The topic for the 2020 workshop is "Ambidexterity in Chromatic Homotopy Theory." It will be mentored by Jacob Lurie (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) and Tomer Schlank (Hebrew University, Jerusalem). The web site for the Talbot workshops is http://math.mit.edu/conferences/talbot/. 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.