Conference: 2025 Georgia International Topology Conference

This NSF award supports the octennial Georgia International Topology Conference, to be held at the University of Georgia from May 19 to May 30, 2025. This event is the ninth in a series of conferences, held every eight years since 1961 at the University of Georgia, and will focus on recent developments in geometric topology. Topological spaces are everywhere in mathematics and in fact everywhere in real life.

From ordinary 3-dimensional space and the 4-dimensional space-time of relativity to spaces of configurations of complex organic molecules and sets of solutions to systems of many equations, the basic problems of topology are ubiquitous. Geometric topology, in particular, focuses on problems in which a strong visual component of reasoning and problem solving comes into play and is generally the most accessible part of topology for a broad audience.

At the same time it is the realm of topology in which some of the hardest outstanding problems remain unsolved. Recent developments to be highlighted at this conference include, for example, the remarkable results of Watanabe, which show that the set of all symmetries of the simplest 4-dimensional object, the 4-dimensional ball, is drastically more complicated than had been suspected eight years ago.

This conference focuses on the most significant advancements in geometric topology and related geometry since the last Georgia International Topology Conference in 2017. The topics will highlight exciting new developments including advances in knot theory, four-manifolds, topology of diffeomorphism and embedding spaces, homotopy theory, contact and symplectic topology and geometry, equivariant Floer homology, Floer homotopy theory, geometric group theory, hyperbolic manifolds and dynamical systems.

The conference has historically generated tremendous interest among graduate students and recent PhD’s. The speakers at various career stages and the range of topics to be presented will offer students and new PhD’s a valuable taste of what the mathematical research community has to offer. The results of the conference will also be made available to a wider audience through a conference proceedings. The conference website is at: https://topology.franklinresearch.uga.edu/2025GITC

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.