A picture of a singularity, courtesy of Herwig Hauser

The workshop will survey several areas of algebraic geometry, providing an introduction to the two main programs hosted by MSRI in Spring 2019. It will consist of 7 expository mini-courses and 7 separate lectures, each given by top experts in the field. 

Image created by Tristan Hübsch

This workshop will be on different aspects of Algebraic Geometry relating Derived Algebraic Geometry and Birational Geometry. In particular the workshop will focus on connections to other branches of mathematics and open problems. There will be some colloquium style lectures as well as shorter research talks. The workshop is open to all.

An invariant set inhibiting transport in a two degree-of-freedom Hamiltonian system (courtesy J. D. Szezech)

This is a main workshop of the program “Hamiltonian systems, from topology to applications through analysis.”  It  will feature current developments pertaining to finite and infinite-dimensional Hamiltonian systems, with a mix of rigorous theory and applications.  A broad range of topics will be included, e.g., existence of and transport about invariant sets (Arnold diffusion, KAM, etc.),  techniques for projection/reduction of infinite to finite systems, and the role of topological invariants in applications.

The NSF Mathematical Sciences Institutes Diversity Committee hosts the 2018 Blackwell-Tapia Conference and Awards Ceremony. This is the ninth conference since 2000, held every other year, with the location rotating among NSF Mathematics Institutes. The conference and prize honors David Blackwell, the first African-American member of the National Academy of Science, and Richard Tapia, winner of the National Medal of Science in 2010, two seminal figures who inspired a generation of African-American, Native American and Latino/Latina students to pursue careers in mathematics. The Blackwell-Tapia Prize recognizes a mathematician who has contributed significantly to research in his or her area of expertise, and who has served as a role model for mathematical scientists and students from underrepresented minority groups, or has contributed in other significant ways to addressing the problem of underrepresentation of minorities in math.

The 2018 recipient of the Blackwell-Tapia Prize is Dr. Ronald E. Mickens, the Distinguished Fuller E. Callaway Professor in the Department of Physics at Clark Atlanta University.

The conference will include scientific talks, poster presentations, panel discussions, ample opportunities for networking, and the awarding of the Blackwell-Tapia Prize. Participants are invited from all career stages and will represent institutions of all sizes across the country, including Puerto Rico.

The Mathematical Sciences Diversity Initiative holds a Modern Math Workshop (MMW) prior to the SACNAS National Conference each year. The 2018 MMW will be hosted by SAMSI at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio, Texas on October 10th and 11th, 2018. This workshop is intended to encourage undergraduates, graduate students and recent PhDs from underrepresented minority groups to pursue careers in the mathematical sciences and build research and mentoring networks. The Modern Math Workshop is a pre-conference event at the SACNAS National Conference. The MMW includes a keynote lecture, mini-courses, research talks, a question and answer session and a reception.

Depiction of the standard nontwist map (courtesy of G.Miloshevich).

This is a main workshop of the program “Hamiltonian systems, from topology to applications through analysis” and is a companion to the workshop next month (November 26-30).  Both workshops will feature current developments pertaining to finite and infinite-dimensional Hamiltonian systems, with a mix of rigorous theory and applications.  A broad range of topics will be included, e.g., existence of and transport about invariant sets (Arnold diffusion, KAM, etc.),  techniques for projection/reduction of infinite to finite systems, and the role of topological invariants in applications.

Tangled honeycomb networks | and the Advanced Light Source at LBNL

The fascinating and complicated microstructures of materials that are now visible through advanced imaging techniques challenge the frontiers of characterisation and understanding. At the same time, developments in modern geometric and topological techniques are beginning to illuminate important features of material structures, while the microstructures themselves and the analysis and prediction of their macroscopic properties are inspiring new directions in pure and applied mathematics. In a collaboration with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), this workshop aims at intensifying the interaction of mathematicians with material scientists, physicists and chemists on the structural description and design of materials.

Representing the orbits of the standard map for K = 1.2

This workshop will feature lectures on a variety of topics in Hamiltonian dynamics given by leading researchers in the area. The talks will focus on recent developments in subjects closely related to the program such as Arnold diffusion, celestial mechanics, Hamilton-Jacobi equations, KAM methods, Aubry-Mather theory and symplectic topological techniques, and on applications. The workshop is open to all mathematicians in areas related to the program.

The interdisciplinary nature of Hamiltonian systems is deeply ingrained in its history. Therefore the program will bring together the communities of mathematicians with the community of practitioners, mainly engineers, physicists, and theoretical chemists who use Hamiltonian systems daily. The program will cover not only the mathematical aspects of Hamiltonian systems but also their applications, mainly in space mechanics, physics and chemistry.

The mathematical aspects comprise celestial mechanics, variational methods, relations with PDE, Arnold diffusion and computation. The applications concern celestial mechanics, astrodynamics, motion of satellites, plasma physics, accelerator physics, theoretical chemistry, and atomic physics.

The goal of the program is to bring to the forefront both the theoretical aspects and the applications, by making available for applications the latest theoretical developments, and also by nurturing the theoretical mathematical aspects with new problems that come from concrete problems of applications.

The purpose of the summer school is to introduce graduate students to state-of-the-art methods and results in Hamiltonian systems and symplectic geometry. We focus on recent developments on the study of chaotic motion in Hamiltonian systems and its applications to models in Celestial Mechanics.

Harmonic analysis is a central field of mathematics with a number of applications to geometry, partial differential equations, probability, and number theory, as well as physics, biology, and engineering. The Graduate Summer School will feature mini-courses in geometric measure theory, homogenization, localization, free boundary problems, and partial differential equations as they apply to questions in or draw techniques from harmonic analysis. The goal of the program is to bring together students and researchers at all levels interested in these areas to share exciting recent developments in these subjects, stimulate further interactions, and inspire the new generation to pursue research in harmonic analysis and its applications.

The image of a large sphere isometrically embedded into a small space through a C^1 embedding. (Attributions: E. Bartzos, V. Borrelli, R. Denis, F. Lazarus, D. Rohmer, B. Thibert)

This two week summer school will introduce graduate students to the theory of h-principles.  After building up the theory from basic smooth topology, we will focus on more recent developments of the theory, particularly applications to symplectic and contact geometry, and foliation theory.

Explore Outstanding Phenomena in Animal Behavior

Jointly hosted by Janelia and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), this program will bring together 15-20 advanced PhD students with complementary expertise who are interested in working at the interface of mathematics and biology. Emphasis will be placed on linking behavior to neural dynamics and exploring the coupling between these processes and the natural sensory environment of the organism. The aim is to educate a new type of global scientist that will work collaboratively in tackling complex problems in cellular, circuit and behavioral biology by combining experimental and computational techniques with rigorous mathematics and physics.

The MSRI-UP summer program is designed to serve a diverse group of undergraduate students who would like to conduct research in the mathematical sciences.

In 2018, MSRI-UP will focus on the core role of (linear) algebra in current research and application areas of Data Science ranging from unsupervised learning, clustering and networks, to algebraic signal processing and feature extraction, to the central role linear algebra plays in deep machine learning.  The research program will be led by Dr. David Uminsky, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of San Francisco.

This Summer Graduate School will introduce students to the modern theory of the  inhomogeneous Cauchy-Riemann equation, the fundamental partial differential equation of Complex Analysis. This theory uses powerful tools of partial differential equations, differential geometry and functional analysis to obtain a refined understanding of holomorphic functions on complex manifolds. Besides students planning to work in complex analysis, this course will be valuable to those planning to study partial differential equations, complex differential and algebraic geometry, and operator theory. The exposition will be self-contained and the prerequisites will be kept at a minimum

Higher categorical structures and homotopy methods have made significant influence on geometry in recent years. This summer school is aimed at transferring these ideas and fundamental technical tools to the next generation of mathematicians.

The summer school will focus on the following four topics:  higher categorical structures in geometry, derived geometry, factorization algebras, and their application in physics.  There will be eight to ten mini courses on these topics, including mini courses led by Chirs Brav, Kevin Costello, Jacob Lurie, and Ezra Getzler. The prerequisites will be kept at a minimum, however, a introductory courses in differential geometry, algebraic topology and abstract algebra are recommended.

The Infinite Possibilities Conference (IPC) is a national conference that is designed to promote, educate, encourage and support women of color interested in mathematics and statistics, as a step towards addressing the underrepresentation of African-Americans, Latinas, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders in these fields. 

IPC aims to:

• fulfill a need for role models and community-building
• provide greater access to information and resources for success in graduate school and beyond
• raise awareness of factors that can support or impede underrepresented women in the mathematical sciences

A unique gathering, the conference brings together participants from across the country, at all stages of education and career, for mentoring and mathematics.

The workshop will bring together key researchers working in various areas of Group Representation Theory to strengthen the interaction and collaboration between them and to make further progress on a number of basic problems and conjectures in the field. Topics of the workshop include
-- Global-local conjectures in the representation theory of finite groups
-- Representations and cohomology of simple, algebraic and finite groups
-- Connections to Lie theory and categorification, and
-- Applications to group theory, number theory, algebraic geometry, and combinatorics.

The purpose of the workshop is to bring together specialists to work on understanding the many-faceted mathematical structures underlying problems in enumerative geometry. Topics represented at the workshop will include: geometric representation theory, supersymmetric gauge theory, string theory, knot theory, and derived geometry, all of which have had a profound effect on the development of modern enumerative geometry.

The homological conjectures in commutative algebra are a network of conjectures that have generated a tremendous amount of activity in the last 50 years. They had largely been resolved for commutative rings that contain a field, but, with the exception of some low dimensional cases, several remained open in mixed characteristic --- until recently, when Yves André announced a proof of Hochster's Direct Summand Conjecture. The progress comes from systematically applying Scholze's theory of perfectoid spaces, which had already shown its value by solving formidable problems in number theory and representation theory. One of the goals of the workshop is to cover the ingredients going into the proofs of the Direct Summand Conjecture.

On March 8-10, 2018, IPAM will host a conference showcasing the achievements of Latinx in the mathematical sciences. The goal of the conference is to encourage Latinx to pursue careers in the mathematical sciences, to promote the advancement of Latinx currently in the discipline, to showcase research being conducted by Latinx at the forefront of their fields, and, finally, to build a community around shared academic interests. The conference will be held on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, CA. It will begin at noon on Thursday, March 8.

This conference is sponsored by the Mathematical Sciences Institutes Diversity Initiative, with funding from the National Science Foundation Division of Mathematical Sciences.

The workshop will survey various important and active areas of the representation theory of finite and algebraic groups, and introduce the audience to several basic open problems in the area. It will consist of 6 series of 3 lectures each given by top experts in the field. The lectures are designed for a diverse audience and will be accessible to non-specialists and graduate students with some background in representation theory. Topics covered include Representation theory of algebraic groups, Decomposition numbers of finite groups of Lie type, Deligne-Lusztig theory,  Block theory, Categorification, and Local-global-conjectures.

This intensive two day workshop will introduce graduate students and recent PhD’s to some current topics of research in Representation Theory. It will consists of a mixture of survey talks on the hot topics in the area given by leading experts and research talks by junior mathematicians covering subjects such as new developments in character theory, group cohomology, representations of Lie algebras and algebraic groups, geometric representation theory, and categorification. 

This workshop is open to all mathematicians.

This workshop will consist of expository mini-courses and lectures introducing various aspects of modern enumerative geometry, among which: enumeration via intersection theory on moduli spaces of curves or sheaves, including Gromov-Witten and Donaldson-Thomas invariants; motivic and K-theoretic refinement of these invariants; and categorical invariants (derived categories of coherent sheaves, Fukaya categories).

This two-day workshop will provide an overview of significant developments and open problems in modern enumerative geometry, from the perspectives of both algebraic geometry and symplectic topology. 

This workshop is open to all mathematicians.

Group Representation Theory is a central area of Algebra, with important and deep connections to areas as varied as topology, algebraic geometry, number theory, Lie theory, homological algebra, and mathematical physics. Born more than a century ago, the area still abounds with basic problems and fundamental conjectures, some of which have been open for over five decades. Very recent breakthroughs have led to the hope that some of these conjectures can finally be settled. In turn, recent results in group representation theory have helped achieve substantial progress in a vast number of applications.

The goal of the program is to investigate all these deep problems and the wealth of new results and directions, to obtain major progress in the area, and to explore further applications of group representation theory to other branches of mathematics.

Traditional enumerative geometry asks certain questions to which the expected answer is a number: for instance, the number of lines incident with two points in the plane (1, Euclid), or the number of twisted cubic curves on a quintic threefold (317 206 375). It has however been recognized for some time that the numerics is often just the tip of the iceberg: a deeper exploration reveals interesting geometric, topological, representation-, or knot-theoretic structures. This semester-long program will be devoted to these hidden structures behind enumerative invariants, concentrating on the core fields where these questions start: algebraic and symplectic geometry.

The Women in Topology (WIT) network is an international group of female mathematicians interested in homotopy theory whose main goal is to increase the retention of women in the field by providing both unique collaborative research opportunities and mentorship between colleagues.  The MSRI WIT meeting will be organized as an afternoon of short talks from participants, followed by two days of open problem seminars and working groups designed to stimulate new collaborations, as well as to strengthen those already ongoing among the participants.