Author: ssather

Brenna, Poland: Effective Methods

The conference Effective Methods in Algebraic and Analytic Geometry IV will be held 4-9 September 2006. It will take place in Hawana Pension located in the Beskidy mountains resort, Brenna, Poland. The aim is to bring together the leading specialists and the young researchers working in effective methods in algebraic and analytic geometry.
For more information, see the conference website.

Fields Institute: Computational and Combinatorial Commutative Algebra

The Fields Institute will host a workshop on “Computational and Combinatorial Commutative Algebra“, July 31-August 4, 2006. The main goal will be to introduce some of the themes of recent research in the subject.
The workshop will consist of a mixture of expository and research talks. It will be preceeded by a preparatory week (July 24- July 28, 2006) on using the computational software package Macaulay 2.
If would like to attend, please email ayong@math.umn.edu to register. (There is no registration fee.)
Further information may be found at the workshop website.
Limited funding for travel is available for junior mathematicians. Please email ayong@math.umn.edu for funding requests.
The worshop is being organized by Ragnar-Olaf Buchweitz, Greg Smith, and Alexander Yong.

Position at University of Copenhagen and photos from Luminy

Some colleagues have asked us to post an announcement for the following position:
Professorship in Algebra at the University of Copenhagen. Full information may be found at http://www.math.ku.dk/ma/stillinger.html. Note in particular that the deadline for applications is 1 August 2006 at 12:00 AM.
In other news, we’ve posted some photos from the recent conference on Commutative Algebra and its interactions with Algebraic Geometry at the CIRM in Luminy, France. Go see!

International Symposium on Symbolic and Algebraic Computation, Genoa

ISSAC is the yearly premier international symposium in Symbolic and Algebraic Computation. It provides an opportunity to learn of new developments and to present original research results in all areas of symbolic mathematical computation. Planned activities include invited presentations, research papers, poster sessions, tutorial courses, vendor exhibits and software demonstrations.
ISSAC 2006 will be held from July 9 to 12 in Genoa, Italy.
The ISSAC 2006 web site is http://issac2006.dima.unige.it/.

Irving Kaplansky

David Eisenbud has written to us of the passing of Irving Kaplansky on 24 June 2006.

Dear Colleagues,
I’m writing to share sad news I received yesterday from Kaplansky’s family: Kap died in his sleep Saturday night.
Kap was enormously influential in many fields of mathematics, through his papers, his books, and perhaps most of all through his students — 55 PhD students and 581 mathematical descendants listed on the genealogy project already put him in the top tier of influence, and the many many students who, like myself, listened raptly to his courses are a still larger group. I remember well his highly entertaining and beautifully polished lectures from my student days in Chicago — whatever he taught, I signed up for the course, it was such a pleasure to listen to him. From being on the first winning team of the Putnam competition to being President of the AMS and National Academy member, his career was truly remarkable — you can find more information starting from the AMS website, http://www.ams.org/ams/48-kaplansky.html.
As second Director of MSRI, Kap served the Institute directly from 1985 through 1992. He greatly developed the reputation and influence of MSRI, building on the start provided by the founders, Chern, Moore and Singer. My own first experiences at MSRI were under Kaplansky’s directorship. As with everything he did, he paid attention to every detail of the operation — he boasted to me once that he personally read and signed every single letter of invitation that the Institute sent out during his eight years in office. He and his wife, Chellie, were also very present and available to the members — literally thousands will remember Kap’s musical performances at the Christmas parties. Among the many marks Kap left on MSRI was the start of fundraising activity. For example Kap formed the “International Board of Friends of MSRI”, and the connections made through this group are still of the utmost importance to us.
Kap’s first paper appeared in 1939. After stepping down as MSRI director, at 80, Kap went back to full-time research mathematics, and returned to number theory, one of his first loves. Some of his most recent work, on integral quadratic forms, was published in 2003, when he was 86.
Mathematically, Kap was my brother: he, the first student of MacLane, I, nearly the last. But he was much more an uncle to me who had been down most of the avenues that I later began to explore. He was always generous in advice, counsel, and in giving credit. I saw him nearly every day in my student days at Chicago, and again, nearly every day, over the first 8 years I was here as Director. Interacting with Kap was always a pleasure, crisp, clear, and somehow uplifting. It is one that I shall deeply miss.
Sadly,
David

photos from RobertsFest and Cortona

Bahman Engheta has posted some of his photos from the recent conference in honor of Paul C. Roberts, Homological Conjectures in Commutative Algebra. Go see!
Mahdi Majidi has also posted photos from the conference.
Several other sets of photos are also available at the conference website.
Marco Fontana has posted some photos from the Workshop on Commutative Rings held in Cortona.