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Workshop

Conference in Low-Dimensional Topology - The KirbyFest June 22, 1998 - June 26, 1998
Registration Deadline: June 26, 1998 over 24 years ago
To apply for Funding you must register by: March 22, 1998 almost 25 years ago
Parent Program: --
Organizers A. Casson, T. Cochran, J. Hass, P. Melvin, M. Scharlemann
Description
The Scope: Recent years have seen spectacular new developments in the study of three and four dimensional manifolds, and in knot theory. Connections have been established to mathematical physics (gauge theory, statistical mechanics, quantum field theory), differential geometry (sympectic/contact geometry, hyperbolic geometry, minimal surfaces), complex algebraic geometry and representation theory. This conference aims to bring together researchers in these areas to see what common threads emerge. We hope to encourage cross fertilization of ideas and techniques, host a large number of graduate students, and encourage new collaborations. Current research areas on which the conference will focus include gauge theory and smooth structures on 4-manifolds, symplectic and contact topology, topology of 4-manifolds, quantum topology and perturbative invariants of knots and 3-manifolds, hyperbolic geometry in dimension 3, and combinatorial methods in knot theory and 3-dimensional topology. These are all areas in which Rob Kirby and his students have made important contributions, and special events honoring Kirby on the occasion of his 60th birthday will be a part of this event Invited speakers include: J. Birman, A. Casson, S. Donaldson, C. Gordon, R. Edwards, M. Freedman, V.F.R. Jones, M. Kontsevich, R. Lickorish, R. Kirby, J. Morgan, L. Siebenmann, D. Sullivan, C. Taubes, W. Thurston.
Keywords and Mathematics Subject Classification (MSC)
Primary Mathematics Subject Classification No Primary AMS MSC
Secondary Mathematics Subject Classification No Secondary AMS MSC
Funding & Logistics Show All Collapse

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To apply for funding, you must register by the funding application deadline displayed above.

Students, recent Ph.D.'s, women, and members of underrepresented minorities are particularly encouraged to apply. Funding awards are typically made 6 weeks before the workshop begins. Requests received after the funding deadline are considered only if additional funds become available.

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MSRI does not hire an outside company to make hotel reservations for our workshop participants, or share the names and email addresses of our participants with an outside party. If you are contacted by a business that claims to represent MSRI and offers to book a hotel room for you, it is likely a scam. Please do not accept their services.

MSRI has preferred rates at the Hotel Shattuck Plaza, depending on room availability. Guests can call the hotel's main line at 510-845-7300 and ask for the MSRI- Mathematical Science Research Institute discount. To book online visit this page (the MSRI rate will automatically be applied).

MSRI has preferred rates at the Graduate Berkeley, depending on room availability. Reservations may be made by calling 510-845-8981. When making reservations, guests must request the MSRI preferred rate. Enter in the Promo Code MSRI123 (this code is not case sensitive).

MSRI has preferred rates at the Berkeley Lab Guest House, depending on room availability. Reservations may be made by calling 510-495-8000 or directly on their website. Select "Affiliated with the Space Sciences Lab, Lawrence Hall of Science or MSRI." When prompted for your UC Contact/Host, please list Chris Marshall (coord@msri.org).

MSRI has a preferred rates at Easton Hall and Gibbs Hall, depending on room availability. Guests can call the Reservations line at 510-204-0732 and ask for the MSRI- Mathematical Science Research Inst. rate. To book online visit this page, select "Request a Reservation" choose the dates you would like to stay and enter the code MSRI (this code is not case sensitive).

Additional lodging options may be found on our short term housing page.

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Schedule, Notes/Handouts & Videos
Show Schedule, Notes/Handouts & Videos
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Jun 22, 1998
Monday
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Contractible open n-manifolds (n>4) are determined by their Z-boundaries
Fredric Ancel
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Vassiliev invariants of knots and links: a survey
Joan Birman
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Setting the Stage: Surgery in the Sixties
Andrew Casson
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  The Orbifold Theorem
Daryl Cooper
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Symplectic and Lagrangian surfaces in 4-space
Simon Donaldson
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  That marvelous torus
Robert Edwards
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Some Ideas of Kirby's: in, around, and outside of mathematics
Michael Freedman
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  The stable cohomology of the mapping class group with arbitrary coefficients
Stavros Garoufalidis
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Emerging mathematical ideas in neurosurgery
Cole Giller
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Applications of Kirby Calculus
Bob Gompf
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  The knot complement theorem
Cameron Gordon
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Foliated surfaces and algorithms for unknots
Michael Hirsch
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Noncommutative Geometry
Vaughan Jones
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Foliated Teichmuller theory
Curt McMullen
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Holomorphic bundles over elliptic curves and families of del Pezzo surfaces
John Morgan
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Non-isotopic Heegaard Splittings of nonmimimal genus
Yoav Moriah
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Problem Session
Rob Kirby
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  The Compression Theorem
Colin Rourke
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Diffeomorphisms of 4-manifolds
Danny Ruberman
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Kirby and the promised land of topological manifolds: memories and memorable arguments
Larry Siebenmann
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Some curious symplectic and non-symplectic 4-manifolds
Ron Stern
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Combinatorial topology and the continuum model of geometry
Dennis Sullivan
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  The Geometry of the Seiberg-Witten Invariants
Cliff Taubes
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Remarks on an old friend of Rob's: R4's from then 'til now
Larry Taylor
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Filtering the knot concordance group by Whitney Towers
Peter Teichner
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Complexifying Diffeomorpism Groups of a Surface
Charles Thomas
08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
  Are 3-manifolds transparent? Diamonds, glass and surgery
William P. Thurston