Rowlee Conference: Random Combinatorial Structures

Random Combinatorial Structures is a conference which will take place on April 21st-22nd, 2007 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The conference will run in association with the 11th Howard Rowlee lecture, an endowed lecture given annually at UNL. The 2007 Rowlee Lecturer will be Professor Bela Bollobas, who will also give one of the lectures at the conference.

The main purpose of this meeting is to create an environment in which interactions and research links in this field between established senior faculty and younger researchers (both graduate students and new Ph.Ds) can flourish. These links will be fostered through talks by both senior and junior participants, as well as substantial opportunities for less formal interaction. A full complement of prominent senior and promising junior researchers have agreed to give lectures at the conference. Other than Professor Bollobas these are Paul Balister, Jozsef Balogh, Joshua Cooper, Alan Frieze, Zoltan Furedi, Boris Pittel, Prasad Tetali, and Catherine Yan.

The primary topic of the meeting is the use of random methods and objects in combinatorics. This is an extremely broad area, encompassing a vast array of active research. The interests of the speakers cover a large portion of this area, including classical random graphs, scale-free random graphs, the theory of percolation, and applications of entropy.

Random methods in combinatorics have proven to have applications in a wide range of disciplines, including biology, physics and many areas of engineering. Percolation is a prime example, one which abounds with rich models and beautiful open problems motivated by physical questions. The conference will provide a venue in which mathematicians can connect with researchers from other disciplines. In addition to this we will encourage interactions between graduate students and the other participants at the conference.

Some support will be available to help with travel and housing expenses (both for speakers and

other attendees of the conference). Recent Ph.Ds and graduate students will receive preference in the allocation of support.