Discrete Structures: Analysis and Applications

September 01, 2014 - June 30, 2015

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Overview

Discrete mathematics has been flourishing in the last couple of decades and many of its subareas (particularly, combinatorics) have become central areas in the mathematics community, attracting the attention of highly respected researchers from other disciplines. The organizers feel that the time has come for a thematic year at the IMA focused on the frontier topics of discrete mathematics and its applications as well as the overlapping areas of probability and analysis. In the latter, special attempts will be made to consider discrete aspects of various classical and modern subtopics. Some of the most striking recent advances in these fields have been made by a confluence of ideas and techniques from other fields. Program workshops will span frontier topics of research in discrete mathematics (including combinatorics and optimization) and probability throughout the year.

One of the program’s specific goals will be to use this forum to make the state-of-the-art more accessible to a broader audience. Particularly through the planning of tutorial lectures, participation by graduate students of various mathematical backgrounds and postdoctoral researchers will be a priority. It would be of great benefit to gather leading researchers in these various sub-fields to facilitate an exchange of knowledge and also to identify new research directions so as to expand the horizons. We thus expect a thematic year of this nature to have a lasting impact on the future of the subject.

The IMA will select up to eight postdoctoral fellows to participate in the year-long program.

Organizing Committee:

Sergey Bobkov	University of Minnesota
Jerrold Griggs	University of South Carolina
Penny Haxell	University of Waterloo
Michel Ledoux	Paul Sabatier University of Toulouse
Benny Sudakov	University of California, Los Angeles
Prasad Tetali	Georgia Institute of Technology

Poster

Events

May 18 - 22, 2015	Graphical Models, Statistical Inference, and Algorithms (GRAMSIA)	Annual Program Workshop
April 27 - May 01, 2015	Analytic Tools in Probability and Applications	Annual Program Workshop
April 13 - 17, 2015	Information Theory and Concentration Phenomena	Annual Program Workshop
March 16 - 20, 2015	The Power of Randomness in Computation	Annual Program Workshop
February 23 - 27, 2015	Convexity and Optimization: Theory and Applications	Annual Program Workshop
November 10 - 14, 2014	Geometric and Enumerative Combinatorics	Annual Program Workshop
September 29 - October 03, 2014	Additive and Analytic Combinatorics	Annual Program Workshop
September 08 - 12, 2014	Probabilistic and Extremal Combinatorics	Annual Program Workshop

Full Description

Program workshops will span frontier topics of research in discrete mathematics (including combinatorics and optimization) and probability throughout the year. In the fall term, the program will focus on probabilistic, extremal, geometric, and enumerative aspects of combinatorics and convex and other nonlinear programming aspects of optimization. During the spring term, the focus will shift to theoretic, geometric, functional, and analytical aspects of probability and analysis.

Concentration of measure phenomenon and isoperimetry have played a major inspirational role in the development of new theories and analytical techniques in both the discrete and continuous probability. Application areas range from the hardness of approximation algorithms in computer science to mass transportation theory in PDE and analysis. Several geometric, functional and isoperimetric inequalities classically developed in discrete and continuous settings can now be placed on a common framework (thanks to the efforts of many experts, identified in the list of visitors below, besides the recent Fields medalist Cédric Villani), while much needs to be further developed and better understood in the discrete settings of graphs and finite Markov chains. We hope the synergistic year will provide a great opportunity for the discrete and the continuous worlds to interact more frequently and fruitfully.

Collaborating Institutions:

Georgia Institute of Technology, Algorithms and Randomness Center (ARC) (host: P. Tetali, director of ARC, www.arc.gatech.edu)
The Euler International Mathematical Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia (host: A. Zaitsev, Steklov Mathematical Institute, www.pdmi.ras.ru/EIMI)

Long-Term Visitors

Name	Affiliation	Department	Visit
Huseyin Acan	Monash University	School of Mathematical Sciences	09/03/14-09/30/14
Maria Axenovich	Karlsruhe Institute of Technology	Institut für Algebra und Geometrie	09/02/14-09/30/14
Fidel Barrera-Cruz	University of Waterloo	Department Combinatorics and Optimization	09/01/14-11/30/14
Andrew Beveridge	Macalester College	Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science	09/01/14-05/30/15
Sergey Bobkov	University of Minnesota, Twin Cities	School of Mathematics	09/02/14-05/16/15
Chassidy Bozeman	Iowa State University	Department of Mathematics	09/02/14-12/15/14
Steve Butler	Iowa State University	Department of Mathematics	09/02/14-05/15/15
Eric Carlen	Rutgers, The State University Of New Jersey	Department of Mathematics	02/01/15-04/30/15
Gennadiy Chystyakov	Universität Bielefeld	Department of Mathematics	01/25/15-04/25/15
Eva Czabarka	University of South Carolina	Department of Mathematics	01/13/15-05/14/15
Jesus De Loera	University of California, Davis	Department of Mathematics	01/19/15-03/20/15
Laura Florescu	New York University	Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences	09/07/14-11/24/14
Zoltan Furedi	Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA)	Alfred Rényi Institute of Mathematics	09/01/14-12/15/14
Larry Goldstein	University of Southern California	Department of Mathematics	04/01/15-04/30/15
Friedrich Götze	Universität Bielefeld	Faculty of Mathematics	02/28/15-03/28/15
Jerrold Griggs	University of South Carolina	Department of Mathematics	09/02/14-12/15/14
Jie Han	Georgia State University	Department of Mathematics	09/01/14-12/17/14
Penny Haxell	University of Waterloo	Department of Combinatorics and Optimization	09/01/14-11/30/14
Patricia Hersh	North Carolina State University	Department of Mathematics	09/01/14-12/15/14
Kristin Heysse	Iowa State University	School of Mathematics	09/01/14-12/15/14
Leslie Hogben	Iowa State University	Department of Mathematics	09/02/14-11/22/14
Kirsten Hogenson	Iowa State University	Department of Mathematics	02/01/15-02/28/15
Emanuel Indrei	Carnegie Mellon University	Department of Mathematical Sciences	04/07/15-05/03/15
Jeannette Janssen	Dalhousie University	Department of Mathematics and Statistics	09/02/14-10/04/14
Tobias Johnson	University of Washington	Department of Mathematics	04/06/15-04/30/15
Jeff Kahn	Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey	Department of Mathematics	08/31/14-10/11/14
Mihyun Kang	Technische Universität Graz	Institut für Optimierung und Diskrete Mathematik	09/01/14-09/30/14
Anh Vinh Le	Vietnam National University		10/15/14-04/15/15
Michel Ledoux	Université de Toulouse III (Paul Sabatier)	Institut de Mathematiques de Toulouse	04/04/15-04/30/15
Joseph Lehec	Université Paris-Dauphine	CEREMADE	04/07/15-05/03/15
Gilad Lerman	University of Minnesota, Twin Cities	School of Mathematics	09/02/14-05/16/15
Jiange Li	University of Delaware	Department of Mathematics	02/14/15-05/22/15
Bernard Lidicky	Iowa State University	Department of Mathematics	09/01/14-12/31/14
Jephian Chin-Hung Lin	Iowa State University	Department of Mathematics	09/01/14-12/15/14
Alexander Litvak	University of Alberta	Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences	04/12/15-05/09/15
Galyna Livshyts	Kent State University	Department of Mathematical Sciences	04/05/15-05/01/15
Allan Lo	University of Birmingham	School of Mathematics	08/28/14-10/04/14
Marcos Lopez	University of Cincinnati	Department of Mathematical Sciences	02/23/15-05/22/15
Mokshay Madiman	University of Delaware	Department of Mathematical Sciences	01/13/15-05/22/15
Zeinab Maleki	Isfahan University of Technology	Department of Mathematical Sciences	09/01/14-04/25/15
Ryan Martin	Iowa State University	Department of Mathematics	08/15/14-05/15/15
Arya Mazumdar	University of Minnesota, Twin Cities	Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering	09/01/14-06/30/15
Vitali Milman	Tel Aviv University	School of Mathematical Sciences	04/02/15-04/29/15
Gregg Musiker	University of Minnesota, Twin Cities	School of Mathematics	09/02/14-05/16/15
Andrew Odlyzko	University of Minnesota, Twin Cities	School of Mathematic	09/02/14-05/16/15
Oleg Pikhurko	University of Warwick	Mathematical Institute	09/07/14-10/03/14
Barbara Pilat	Warsaw University of Technology	Faculty of Mathematics and Information Science	08/29/14-08/28/15
Victor Reiner	University of Minnesota, Twin Cities	Department of Mathematics	09/02/14-05/16/15
Liran Rotem	Tel Aviv University	School of Mathematical Sciences	04/06/15-05/06/15
Mark Rudelson	University of Michigan	Department of Mathematics	03/01/15-04/30/15
Barna Saha	University of Massachusetts	College of Information and Computer Sciences	09/06/14-12/01/14
Carsten Schuett	Christian-Albrechts Universität Kiel	Mathematisches Seminar	08/06/14-10/04/14
Arnab Sen	University of Minnesota, Twin Cities	School of Mathematics	09/02/14-05/16/15
Joel Spencer	New York University	Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences	09/07/14-10/03/14
Tibor Szabó	Freie Universität Berlin	Department of Mathematics and Computer Science	09/01/14-09/25/14
Michael Szestopalow	University of Waterloo	Department of Combinatorics and Optimization	09/04/14-12/01/14
Prasad Tetali	Georgia Institute of Technology	School of Mathematics and College of Computing	09/03/14-10/23/14
Ngoc Mai Tran	The University of Texas at Austin	Department of Mathematics	09/07/14-10/05/14
Andrew Treglown	University of Birmingham	Department of Mathematics	08/29/14-10/04/14
Shanise Walker	Iowa State University	Department of Mathematics	02/01/15-02/28/15
Peng Xu	University of Delaware	Department of Mathematical Sciences	02/08/15-05/31/15
Damir Yeliussizov	Kazakh-British Technical University	Department of Computer Engineering	09/01/14-11/29/14 04/30/15-05/30/15
Michael Young	Iowa State University	Department of Mathematics	09/01/14-12/31/14
Yi Zhao	Georgia State University	Department of Mathematics and Statistics	09/02/14-10/04/14