Graduate Research Workshops in Combinatorics

University Of Denver, Denver CO

Investigators

Abstract

The Graduate Research Workshop in Combinatorics (GRWC) will be held in Minneapolis, MN (2020), Denver, CO (2021) and Ames, IA (2022), building upon successful NSF-funded workshops from 2014 to 2019. Each workshop will involve approximately 45 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in an intense two-week collaborative research experience. Participants will work to solve important problems from across the modern subdisciplines of combinatorics, including algebraic combinatorics, graph theory, enumeration, combinatorial matrix theory and finite geometry. Students will prepare open problems prior to the workshop under the guidance of faculty mentors from institutions around the United States. These problems will be investigated by small groups of participating students, postdocs, and faculty. The goal of the collaborations at the heart of the GRWC is to produce high-quality, publishable research on a variety of topics. Another longer-term goal of the workshop is to help student and postdoctoral participants expand their professional research networks. A strong research network is often a crucial part of building a generative and sustainable research program, and establishing these connections at an early career stage can have a long-term positive effect on the quality, impact, and depth of a professional's research portfolio. Participation in the GRWC will allow students to cultivate a large network of peers from the combinatorics community with whom they will be able to interact and collaborate throughout their careers. The GRWC will also offer professional development workshops to help students and postdocs prepare for their future careers in academia, industry and government. For more information about the GRWC, including a detailed description of the workshop format, please see the workshop website at www.combinatoricsworkshop.org. 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.