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Scientific Report of the CMS Summer Meeting 2001 University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon
Keith Taylor, Meeting Director
The 2001 Summer Meeting of the Canadian Mathematical Society was both a scientific and
organizational success. There are relatively few mathematicians who live within easy
traveling distance of Saskatoon, so the total of 279 registered participants exceeded
most expectations and seems to be a record for a regular summer meeting. We believe that
the quality of the scientific programme was responsible for the attendance.
The programme consisted of ten symposia arranged around four plenary and two prize
lectures. The plenary and prize lecturers took great care in preparing and delivering
the following talks for general audiences.
- The CMS Jeffery-Williams Lecture: Mahler's measure, hyperbolic
geometry and the dilogarithm, DAVID BOYD, University of British Columbia.
- The CMS Krieger-Nelson Lecture: Gauge theories and flat
connections on Riemann surfaces, LISA JEFFREY, University of Toronto.
- Canadian Lie algebras, GEORGIA BENKART, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- Model theory of generic difference fields, ZOE CHATZIDAKIS, Université
Paris.
- Conformality and universality, GEOFFREY GRIMMETT, University of Cambridge.
- Singular continuous spectra for Schrodinger operators, BARRY SIMON,
California Institute of Technology.
The symposia covered a diverse array of topics and featured speaker lists that
attracted many additional delegates. The topics and organizers are listed below.
- Abstract Harmonic Analysis, organized by ANTHONY LAU, Alberta, and
KEITH TAYLOR, Saskatchewan.
- Geometric Topology, organized by ALEX CHIGOGIDZE and ED TYMCHATYN, Saskatchewan.
Sponsored by the CMS Research Committee.
- Graph Theory, organized by BRIAN ALSPACH and DENIS HANSON, Regina.
- Infinite Dimensional Lie Theory and Representation Theory, organized by
STEPHEN BERMAN, Saskatchewan. Sponsored by the National Program Committee of CRM,
Fields and PIMS.
- Mathematical Education: Cognition in Mathematics, organized by FLORENCE
GLANFIELD, Saskatchewan. Sponsored by the CMS Education Committee.
- Matrix Analysis, organized by JUDITH MCDONALD, Regina. This session
featured two externally sponsored special lecturers: CHI-KWONG LI, sponsored by the
International Linear Algebra Society, and CARL MEYER, sponsored by SIAM.
- Model Theoretic Algebra, organized by BRADD HART, McMaster/Fields,
FRANZ-VIKTOR KUHLMANN and SALMA KUHLMANN, Saskatchewan. Sponsored by the CMS
Research Committee.
- Number Theory - in Honour of David Boyd, organized by PETER BORWEIN,
Simon Fraser, and MICHAEL BENNETT, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
- Rigorous Studies in the Statistical Mechanics of Lattice Models, organized by
CHRIS SOTEROS, Saskatchewan, and STU WHITTINGTON, Toronto. Sponsored by the CMS
Research Committee.
- Scattering Theory and Integrable Systems, organized by JACEK SZMIGIELSKI,
Saskatchewan. Sponsored by the CMS
Research Committee.
A public lecture was offered on Saturday evening, June 2, by DE WITT SUMNERS, Florida
State University, on the topic Calculating the secrets of life: mathematics in
biology and medicine. It was very well received by a diverse audience from the
broader university community and the general public. A number of high school
teachers and students were spotted in the audience as well. Prof. Sumners' visit
to the campus was sponsored by a the University of Saskatchewan Visiting Lecturers
Fund.
Following the public lecture, there was a poster session at which four
graduate students presented displays. It should be pointed out that there were
a significant number of graduates students who delivered talks in various
of the symposia.
We are pleased to acknowledge generous financial support for this scientific programme
that we received from the following sources: The Department of Mathematics and Statistics,
University of Saskatchewan. The National Programme Committee, a joint
committee of the Centre de recherches mathématiques, the Fields Institute for
Research in Mathematical Sciences, and the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical
Sciences. The Visiting Lecturers Fund, University of Saskatchewan. The President,
University of Saskatchewan. The Dean of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Saskatchewan.
The Dean of Arts and Science, University of Saskatchewan. Yvonne Cuttle.
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. The International Linear
Algebra Society.
The scientific programme could not have succeeded without the collaborative work of
all the session organizers listed above with their own symposia, the local organizing
committee chaired by Chris Soteros, and the able staff of the executive office. We
thank them all.
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