EU - Groups - European training courses and conferences in group theory (geometric, analytic and ergodic aspects of group theory)

This mathematics proposal, with group theory at its heart, covers an unusually diverse range of subjects: geometric group theory, harmonic analysis, operator algebras, ergodic theory, amenability, and random walks. These areas form the core of exciting new relationships and so a special effort must be made to encourage communication between experts and beginners in such diverse fields. To achieve this, we intend that participating young researchers attend all events, where international experts will expose them to the latest knowledge through 2 one-week conferences and 9 one-week training courses between 2007 and 2009. The quality of the lecturers is uniformly high with four Fields medallists, one Nevanlinna Prize Medallist, and 20 ICM speakers. The continued interaction will develop scientific collaborations between researchers from distinct fields, bringing enduring high-level international collaboration. The scale of the project is designed to bring synergy between European competences which are as yet not as strongly connected as they could be. The host participants are international research institutions with excellent facilities and long-term experience in the organization of scientific meetings: the CNRS/CIRM in France, the Bernoulli Research Centre in Switzerland, the Landau Centre in Israel, the Graz University of Technology in Austria, the Academic village of Anogia in Greece (Crete), the ESI in Austria. Although the proportion of women working in mathematics is very low, several outstanding researchers involved in the organization of the proposal are women (one scientist in charge, 12 lecturers) and special attention to gender issues will be paid concerning the selection of all groups of participants. The project will allow about 30 native European experts currently living and working outside of the European Community (mostly in the USA) to disseminate their latest knowledge and to keep contact with European researchers.