WINTER MIDWEST TOPOLOGY SEMINAR

Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan

February 26 and 27, 2005

General Information

The next Midwest Topology Seminar will be held at Calvin College on Saturday and Sunday, February 26 and 27, 2005. Refreshments will be available in the Atrium of De Vries Hall on Saturday morning, starting at 8:30 a.m. All talks will be in the Science Building, Room 010. De Vries Hall and the Science Building are two wings of the same building. The building itself is located on the west side of the campus and the Atrium is on the south side of the building, between DeVries Hall and the Science Building (see campus map). There will be a dinner and social time for all participants on Saturday evening. The Midwest Topology Seminar is partially supported by the National Science Foundation. If you have questions about the event, contact one of the local organizers: Jim Turner (jturner@calvin.edu) and Gerard Venema (gvenema@math.msu.edu).
 

Revised Schedule (as of February 23)

The organizers have recently been informed that, due to a family medical emergency, Gunnar Carlsson will not be able to give his talk as scheduled on Saturday afternoon. As a result, the entire schedule has been revised and all five remaining talks will be given on Saturday. The new schedule appears below. There will be no talks on Sunday. The abstract of Carlsson's talk is still availble for those who are interested.

Saturday, February 26

Time Speaker Title
8:30 - 9:30 Refreshments  
9:30 - 10:30 Satyan Devadoss, Williams College An introduction to graph-associahedra (abstract)
10:30 - 11:00 Break  
11:00 - 12:00 Fred Cohen, University of Rochester Applications of braid groups to problems in topology (abstract)
12:00 - 2:00 Lunch Break  
2:00 - 3:00 Robion Kirby, University of California, Berkeley Near symplectic forms and singular Lefschetz fibrations (abstract)
3:00 - 3:15 Break  
3:15 - 4:15 Ron Fintushel, Michigan State University 4-manifolds with b+ = 1 (abstract)
4:15 - 4:30 Break  
4:30 - 5:30 Stephan Stolz, University of Notre Dame Elliptic cohomology via conformal field theories? (abstract)
6:00 - 8:00 Dinner at Prince Conference Center  
8:00 - 11:00 Reception at Ridgewood Apartments  

Accommodations

A block of rooms has been reserved at the Prince Conference Center, which is located on the Calvin College campus. Call 1-866-526-7200 to reserve a room. Be sure to mention the Midwest Topology Seminar when making your reservation so that you receive the conference rate of $68.00 per night. A deluxe continental breakfast is included with the room. The Prince Conference Center has an airport shuttle that can provide transportation from the Gerald R. Ford Airport (GRR) to the conference center. If you are arriving by plane, be sure to arrange for shuttle pickup when you make your room reservation.

Location of Conference

The following maps have been especially prepared for the use of participants and may be downloaded in pdf format. Go to the Calvin College visitor information page for driving instructions, more maps, and other information about the area.

Parking

The white areas on the campus map are parking lots. You may park anywhere on campus on weekends. The lots nearest to the Science Building and De Vries Hall are those along the west side of campus. You could also park at the Prince Conference Center and walk across the bridge from there.

NSF Support

The NSF has made some funds available to support travel to the Midwest Topology Seminar. These funds are intended primarily to support graduate students, junior mathematicians, and mathematicians who do not have other NSF support for their research. If you wish to apply for support, contact Jim Turner (jturner@calvin.edu) or Gerard Venema (gvenema@math.msu.edu).