After the successful introduction of the Algebraic Geometry Northeastern Series (AGNES) in 2013, Boston College will once again host the biannual weekend workshop beginning March 20 under the organization of professor Brian Lehmann and Assistant Professors Dawei Chen and Maksym Fedorchuk of the mathematics department. The conference is funded by the National Science Foundation and BC.
“In recent years, the BC math department has expanded greatly the algebraic geometry group, which is recognized by the algebraic community and the National Science Foundation,” Chen said. “In 2013 … we had a chance to host AGNES at BC for the first time. It was quite a bit of work, but it was successful, and we enjoyed it.”
BC is one of six universities that rotate hosting the conference, which specializes in the area of algebraic geometry. BC, along with the University of Pennsylvania, Stony Brook University, Yale, Brown, UMass Amherst, MIT, and the University of Connecticut, has been involved in working to fulfill the goals of the conference. The primary objective is to introduce graduate students to a broad spectrum of current research in algebraic geometry.
Usually the speakers come from a variety of locations and cover a broad range of topics,” Professor Lehmann said. “We have a great lineup of speakers and are very excited to hear what they have to say.”
The event begins on Friday, March 20 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Higgins 225 and starts with a graduate mini school. This feature of the conference is new and will include four additional teaching talks given by local researchers Ana-Maria Castravet of Northeastern University, Joe Harris of Harvard University, and Alina Marian and Emanuele Macri of Northeastern University.
“The interest in this mini-school was overwhelming,” Lehmann said. “We had more registrants than we expected, even though it was the first one.”
AGNES will continue from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday in Devlin Hall 008, where the rest of the conference will be held. It will pick up with a speech from Song Sun of Stony Brook University on algebraic geometry of limits of Kahler manifolds. AGNES will then continue on Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with speeches given by Aaron Bertram of the University of Utah, Melanie Wood of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Carolina Araujo of the Instituto Nacional de Matematica Pura e Aplicada, and June Huh of the Institute for Advanced Study.
The day will conclude with an academic job search panel from 5 to 6 p.m., organized by Alina Marian, followed by a conference banquet at 7:30 p.m. at Sichuan Gourmet in Brookline—two additions to the conference. Finally, Sunday will begin at 8 a.m. with breakfast and continue through 1:30 p.m., featuring speeches from Mattias Jonsson of University of Michigan, Maria Angelica Cueto of Columbia University, and Daniel Greb of Universitat Duisburg-Essen. The speeches on both Saturday and Sunday will be broken up intermittently for coffee and snacks provided by the organization. Saturday will also include a lunch break with boxed lunches and drinks.
“[AGNES] has a strong teaching component for graduate students,” Lehmann said. “It is tradition for some of the speakers to give ‘pre-talks’ for graduate students, giving an introduction to the topics which will be covered in their main talks. Usually the participants are predominantly graduate students.”
Though the conference serves to educate those who attend, Chen explained that his hopes for the weekend are that all participants can learn something useful for their own research. Having first attended AGNES once as a speaker prior to coming to BC, Chen said the influence and popularity in the Northeast algebraic geometry community was what drew him to the conference and impressed him.
“I also hope, especially for student and postdoc participants, future connections and collaborations can be established at AGNES,” Chen said. “I am looking forward to this event as a wonderful celebration and reunion for the Northeast algebraic geometry community.”
Featured Image by Tatiana Petrovick / Heights Staff
