From hass@lobata.math.ucdavis.edu Tue Dec  9 19:15:08 1997
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 16:14:47 -0800 (PST)
From: Joel Hass <hass@math.UCDavis.edu>
Content-Type: text

Announcement: The KirbyFest:  A Conference on Low-Dimensional Topology,
in honor of Rob Kirby's 60th  birthday.
Time: 22-26 June, 1998
Place: MSRI in Berkeley, California, USA

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: M. Atiyah, A. Casson, S. Donaldson, C. Gordon,
R. Edwards, M. Freedman, V.F.R. Jones, R. Lickorish, R. Kirby, J. Morgan
C. Taubes, W. Thurston.


The organizers would like to create a program which is largely accessible 
to advanced graduate students and which covers a fairly broad
range of mathematics, within the context of low-dimensional topology.
Such areas might include gauge theory, smooth
and topological structures on 4-manifolds, symplectic and contact
topology,  invariants of knots and 3-manifolds, 3-dimensional hyperbolic
goemetry, and  normal surface theory.  We are also hoping to have a few
talks of a historical nature, aimed at a broad audience, and reviewing the
breakthroughs in the sixties and seventies which paved the way for the
modern theory of manifolds.   For obvious reasons, we also plan to have
sessions on open problems.

For further information on this conference, including applications for support,
see the web page at MSRI:

http://nextra.msri.org/office/events/kirbyfest