Graduate homotopy conference
What: Graduate student conference in homotopy theory When: Tuesday Dec 4 to Friday Dec 7 2007 Where: Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge, UK
Program, abstracts:
See you soon in Cambridge...
Introduction
There will be a homotopy theory conference in Cambridge for graduate students, from Tuesday morning, Dec 4, to Friday afternoon, Dec 7, 2007. The conference will take place in Cambridge, UK, at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences.
There will be no "senior" speaker, but we invite each participant to give a talk, which can be on his/her current research, but also on something else that seems worth sharing. In particular, it is perfectly acceptable to present an outline of a research problem you work on, even if you don't have any significant results so far.
We believe this will be a superb occasion for meeting other students in your area of interest, give a talk, share ideas, ask questions, and learn new things from other people's talks. The title of the conference, "Homotopy theory" should be interpreted in a wide sense, in particular, we are very happy to get speakers on classical topology, motivic homotopy theory, generalised cohomology theories, higher categories and model categories, stacks, derived algebraic geometry and so on. Already (Oct 12), we have around 20 participants, and we expect to accommodate up to 25 to 30 participants in total (depending on how many want to give a talk).
Travelling to Cambridge
Among the London airports, Stansted is nearest to Cambridge, but it is of course also possible to arrive at Heathrow, Luton, London City, or Gatwick. Some low-cost airlines flying to Stansted include RyanAir, EasyJet, Norwegian, Air Berlin, SkyEurope, Germanwings and Centralwings.
The easiest way to get from an airport to Cambridge is by bus (10 GBP from Stansted), see National Express. It is also possible to take the train.
Cambridge is small town, and most distances are walkable. The Centre for Mathematical Sciences (CMS) lies to the west of the city centre. The Cambridge bus station is located in the city centre, about 2 km from the CMS. The rail station is located in the southeast part of the city, about 5 km from the CMS. From the rail station, it is easy to take a local bus to the city centre, but there is no convenient direct bus to the CMS. A taxi from the rail station to the CMS should cost around 6 GBP.
Here are some maps indicating how to find the Centre for Mathematical Sciences. For more information, please visit the University of Cambridge visitors' page and the DPMMS visitors' page.
In case you need it, here is information on how to get around in London.
Accommodation
There are three accommodation options:
- Rent a college guestroom, approximately 15 GBP per night (THIS OPTION IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE)
- Stay with a Cambridge student, not necessarily in a room of you own, approximately 7 GBP per night
- Arrange your own accommodation, for example with someone you know or at a hotel/B&B
It is technically possible to stay in London and commute to Cambridge every day by train, but we would not recommend it - the train is expensive and it takes a lot of time. The train station in Cambridge is also a bit far from the Centre for Mathematical Sciences.
Food
For the people staying with Cambridge students, basic breakfast will be provided by the hosts. One evening, the maths department will sponsor a dinner out for everyone who gives a talk.
Money
We have recently obtained some limited funds to assist people coming to the conference. If you would like to apply for financial support from us, please send us a separate email, giving relevant details (in particular how much money you need).
In any case, choosing one of the cheap accommodation options and flying with a cheap airline should hopefully make the conference affordable. In case it is useful for funding applications, we can write a formal invitation letter for anyone coming to give a talk.
Registering
We encourage you to register early, as the number of speakers is limited to what we can reasonably fit into four days. To register, simply copy and paste the questions below into an email, answer them, and send the email to the following two addresses: kjah2@cam.ac.uk, dvd21@cam.ac.uk. You should receive a confirmation email within a week, otherwise please contact us.
Your name: University: Supervisor: Email address: Phone number: Postal address: General research interests (this will be put on paper and distributed to all conference participants): Would you like to give a 30 min talk or a 50 min talk? Title and abstract of your talk (this can be provided later!) Which accommodation option do you prefer: 1, 2, or 3? Do you need a formal invitation letter, for example in order to apply for travel funds? Food information (are you a vegetarian, allergic to something, etc): Would you like to connect your laptop to the Internet while in Cambridge? Anything else we need to know:
Questions?
If you have any further questions, please send us an email. If for some reason you need to call us, our numbers are: Dinesh Deshpande: +44 1223 76 42 57 (work), +44 7908 57 89 96 (mobile). Andreas Holmstrom: +44 1223 76 68 47 (work), +44 7890 66 49 69 (mobile).
Hope to see you in December, Dinesh Deshpande (dvd21@cam.ac.uk) Andreas Holmstrom (kjah2@cam.ac.uk)