Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Annual Report, 2016-2017
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Annual Report on the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute 2016–2017 activities supported by NSF Grant DMS-1440140 June 1, 2016 to May 31, 2017 July 2017 Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Annual Report, 2016-2017 1. Overview of Activities ................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 New Developments ............................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Summary of Demographic Data for 2016-17 Activities .................................................... 7 1.3 Scientific Programs and their Associated Workshops ....................................................... 9 1.4 Scientific Activities Directed at Underrepresented Groups in Mathematics ................... 11 a. Connections for Women Workshops .................................................................. 11 b. MSRI-UP 2016 (DMS-1156499) ........................................................................ 12 c. Modern Math Workshop at SACNAS ................................................................ 12 d. Blackwell-Tapia Conference 2016 ..................................................................... 12 1.5 Summer Graduate Schools 2016 ...................................................................................... 12 1.6 Other Scientific Workshops ............................................................................................. 13 1.7 Education & Outreach Activities ..................................................................................... 14 a. Critical Issues in Mathematics Education 2017: Observing for Access, Power, and Participation in Mathemtics Classrooms as a Strategy to Improve Mathematics Teaching and Learning (NSF Grants DLR-1461358 and DLR- 1738702) ............................................................................................................. 14 b. National Math Festival 2017 (NSF Supplement Grant DMS-1733966) ............. 14 1.8 Program Consultants List in 2016-17 .............................................................................. 15 2. Program and Workshop Data .................................................................................................... 16 2.1 Program Members List .................................................................................................... 16 2.2 Program Members Summary ........................................................................................... 16 2.3 Program Members Demographic Data ............................................................................ 17 2.4 Workshop Participant List ............................................................................................... 19 2.5 Workshop Participant Summary ...................................................................................... 19 2.6 Workshop Participant Demographic Data ....................................................................... 20 2.7 Program Publication List ................................................................................................. 22 2.8 Program Publication Work-in-Progress List .................................................................... 22 3. Postdoctoral Program ................................................................................................................. 23 3.1 Description of Activities .................................................................................................. 23 3.2 Postdoctoral Fellow Placement List ................................................................................. 72 3.3 Postdoctoral Fellow Participant Summary ....................................................................... 67 3.4 Postdoctoral Fellow Demographic Data .......................................................................... 68 3.5 Postdoctoral Research Member Placement List ............................................................... 70 3.6 Postdoctoral Research Member Summary ....................................................................... 70 4. Graduate Program ...................................................................................................................... 70 4.1. Summer Graduate Schools (2016) ................................................................................... 70 4.2. Summer Graduate School Data ........................................................................................ 72 4.3. Program Associates .......................................................................................................... 76 4.4. Program Associate Data ................................................................................................... 76 4.5. Graduate Student List ...................................................................................................... 79 4.6. Graduate Student Data ..................................................................................................... 79 5. Undergraduate Program in 2016 (MSRI-UP) .......................................................................... 80 5.1. Description of Undergraduate Program ........................................................................... 80 11. Appendix – Final Reports of Activities in 2016–17 .................................................................. 82 PROGRAM REPORTS i. No. 278: Geometric Group Theory ..................................................................................... 83 ii. No. 297: Analytic Number Theory ................................................................................... 102 iii. No. 300: Harmonic Analysis ............................................................................................. 126 iv. No. 320: Complementary Program (2016-17) .................................................................. 146 WORKSHOP REPORTS v. No. 768: Connections for Women: Geometric Group Theory .......................................... 159 vi. No. 769: Introductory Workshop: Geometric Group Theory ............................................ 190 vii. No. 770: Amenability, coarse embeddability and fixed point properties .......................... 219 viii. No. 771: Geometry of mapping class groups and Out(Fn) ............................................... 248 ix. No. 772: Groups acting on CAT(0) spaces ....................................................................... 278 x. No. 800: Connections for Women: Analytic Number Theory .......................................... 309 xi. No. 801: Introductory Workshop: Analytic Number Theory ............................................ 340 xii. No. 802: Connections for Women: Harmonic Analysis.................................................... 369 xiii. No. 803: Introductory Workshop: Harmonic Analysis ..................................................... 401 xiv. No. 805: Recent Developments in Harmonic Analysis ..................................................... 431 xv. No. 810: Recent Developments in Analytic Number Theory ........................................... 461 xvi. No. 826: Hot Topics: Galois Theory of Periods and Applications ................................... 491 xvii. NATIONAL MATH FESTIVAL 2017............................................................................. 519 SUMMER GRADUATE SCHOOLS xviii. No. 767: An Introduction to Character Theory and the McKay Conjecture ..................... 532 xix. No. 773: Mixed Integer Nonlinear Programming: Theory, algorithms and applications . 551 xx. No. 775: Seminaire de Mathematiques Superieures 2016: Dynamics of Biological Systems ..... 570 xxi. No. 776: Harmonic Analysis & Elliptic Equations on real Euclidean Spaces & on Rough Sets .. 595 xxii. No. 777: Chip Firing and Tropical Curves ........................................................................ 615 xxiii. No. 778: Electronic Structure Theory ............................................................................... 634 1. Overview of Activities This annual report covers MSRI’s projects and activities supported by the NSF core grant, DMS- 1440140, during the period of June 1st, 2016 to May 31st, 2017. 1.1 New Developments The year 2016–17 was an exciting one. In fall 2016, we held a jumbo program: Geometric Group Theory, with lead organizer Mark Feighn (Rutgers). In Spring 2017, we held two programs: Analytic Number Theory, led by Terence Tao (UCLA), and Harmonic Analysis, led by Michael Christ (Berkeley) and Michael Lacey (Georgia Tech). All three programs were very popular, and their workshops well attended. All programs had stellar researchers with four of them awarded funding by the Clay Mathematics Institute: Manjul Bhargava, Rodney Heath- Brown, Karen Vogtmann, and Alexander Volberg. Manjul Bhargava and Terry Tao need no introduction, as their pioneering work in several areas of number theory and harmonic analysis yielded breakthroughs that didn’t seem possible ten years ago. Their Fields Medals (2014, 2016), Infosys, Fermat, Cole, Salem, Polya, and Breakthrough prizes (and many other awards) simply confirm what everyone knows: they are exceptional researchers producing extraordinary mathematics. Prof. Tao mentored a postdoc, Ayla Gafni, whose experience at MSRI was exceptionally productive. As she mentions in her end of semester report (see section 3), prior to her PD fellowship at MSRI she did not have many collaborators. She now lists 11 collaborators and six projects started here which are in various stages of completion.